Sunday July the 3^d/64

   Near city Point

 

Dear Wife                                                                                        

            I have just receivd a letter from you saying that i have not writen to you but i think by the time you get his you will have severel i sent two the same day that you wrote this and i think by this time you will have them i see in this you are engaged in the shoe buisness i think you must be very bad off to sell them shoes that i made for less than the lether cost very hard up you had better get some money if you are as hard up as that it makes my lip curl to hear that wen befor i get back you will want shoes your self and you cannot get the poorest pair of store truck for even 2.00 / and hear you sell shoes for what i would not wen i was home she ofered me that and i would not take it over and over and i would rather burn them than sell them to her for that she will only blow about it i saw Janes pictur the other day one of the soldiers had it from their you hear you all say good news from me you all write so you ought to write me good news i am doing the right thing so why do i not hear from home as i ought i never hear one word from home about my affairs wether i have got any thing to show for my monney wat i fight for and rost in the sun nearly strangle in the dust sweat and toil never hear one word have not a cent in my poket but i expect you are all alike nothing but a soldier it makes no diference with / a soldier wether he lives or dies away far away from home not one to speak a kind word to him hardly take time to put him under the ground throw a few shovels full of dust over him one leg out and one hand no one knows him who is he nothing but a soldier i shall send a letter home to father soon as we get settled down i have traveled hundreds of miles all over virginnia and you are all the one that has sent me one word of love they all stand on turns to answer letters how can i answer letters wen i am in the road a horse back some times wen i get them and wen they do answer them why i see wen they get time they answer them wen they have nothing elce to do sundays & i answer evry time it is not 15 minnets since i receivd your letter and now i have / almost answered it i get few letters from any one but you i wrote a letter from to Henry J Smith i have not got an answer yet why do you not write to him and go and see him you must keep some friends to viset then you can go and see them i get along well enuf i would like to see you but i guess you will have to wait till the three years is up i will send you a Virginnia flower they look like bachelors buttons a little i got it the other side of the blackwater River and have caried it in my butten hole two dayes in the dust and smoke of evry thing it came only eight miles from north Carilina so you can look at some thing that came from virginnia you need not think that i ever forget you not for an hour i shall send to the old father of mine for twenty dollars i want some monney and i will have it if i can get it i think i deserv it i have lived in hopes of being / paid off but i guess it will be quite a while yet we have just been mustered for another pay day wich will bring it some months yet you keep your money tell me wether you get you state pay or not if you tell the father to send me 20 dollars in his answer to my other letter i will send him a receipt for it as soon as i get it if not i will send it befor i have not writen half enuf but i have to go the bugle sounds and i must away to water i get one of the boys by the name of Agust to take him for me he is hardly worth taking but yet he can go well enuf on a walk / i call him tar Bucket aint that a name for you i hope pool will enjoy him self to morrow and you to i hear to day that Petersburg is ours their is no fighting to day but their has been evry day this week only once and a while to day we hear a shell one of grants peace makers whistle along on its erand of deth death night befor last the hevest fighting of the war was at peatersburg the rebs charged on our lines but the boys was reddy and with rifles redy cocked thought such occaisons lucky we did not give them time to rally even in their line of brest works we caught them by the thousand i told you they wanted me down hear i am / glad to hear that Schenck speeks well of me i shall do my duty if i live that is all they can ask of me if it was not for you i would never come to Jersey again you are the only keep i should like to see my parents and brothers sisters and so on but Jersey sand has no chois for me of all dirt you ever saw it is hear fruit is plenty blackberies is ripe cheries is gone long agoe apples is ripe some of them harvest is cut oats is ripe we lay in an oats field now but how much is their left not a sphere in over a hundred acres the largest fields hear you ever saw i thank you for the stamp and envalope but the paper / you might have filled it with somthing i see you stand on answering letters to i gess you do not take much pleasur in writing to me if you want to get an answer this letter has laid at city point i do not know how long how can we get a mail wen half the time the goverment does not know were we are they know were we are to come wen we are off the raids but that is all i hope we will lay in camp two or three days then i shall try and see if i can send you letters regalar so you can answer them if you are so particular and if you do not want to write why you need not i can let you know how i get along you need not write unless you want to the money that i want we get as much crackers and coffey as we want but wat is that i want some thing elce and i mean to get it if i can / i hope this will find you well and my little boy henry B Statts is wounded in the knee i hope to get a short answer to this the letter is long enuf i think i do not think it will go in the envalope you sent me it is so dainty i am fearfull of touching it with my dirty hands six inches of dust i set in at this moment but in the shade of some bushes we put up this morning to morrow is the 4 of July i hope god will let it be prosperes with our armies so much goes on that my head is so full that i could write for weeks if i had time one man in our company was drowned yesterday in the James River it is very hot in the sun evry day the days is getting shorter but slowly i wish you would let me know how my game cocks is getting along and if you hear from your granfathers or not i must stop now stable call has blowen and i must clean Tar Bucket write if you think it worth your preichous time we burned Prince Gorges Court House yesterday their is all kinds of perestering flies and bugs hear i get very tired evry day i sleep good nights i wonder wat regiment Joe Smith is in i am glad he has gone if you pay your rent evry three months it is plenty i shall your father a good long letter soon as i can but i know not wen that will be you have got you 20 dollars yet you can keep it if you get your state pay regalar do not get to great with anybody keep your own table and live good so you can get fat for i expect i will want a good fat little wife wen i come home to sleep with i am getting so lean that i expect i will be a poor bedfellow now god be with you and watch over you as he does with me your ever true and loving husband you know who

 

H H Covert i feel as if i have writen not half enuf good bye

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