Baltimore Sunday April the 23 1865 &c

 

            Dear Wife & Boy It was with the greatest pleasure that i receivd your letter from the Post Man and with far greater pleasure that i see i am not forgotten but i suppoes you will answer this as quickly as you can i sent you a long one the other day but i expect you will not like that but i hope this will find an answer so hear goes for a short one any how now my Dear Wife and mother of my boy i am both glad & sorry to hear you are getting along finely makes me feel glad & to hear you are affraid makes me feel the other way but to my storie you have the garden most made i am glad of that the trees is out hear such as their is but you see but few i can tell you evry thing goes on quitely hear since the funerl except a few house arrest but you can see them in the paper i send you to day they better not say one word about the president if they do not want to be in jail befor they are an hour older i suppoes you will be glad to get that long letter if you do not like it but by that you can see wat sad thoughts come in my mind some times i would be glad to be with you again i am never sad any way for if i am not in a good umer i am bad and wen i am in a good umer why you see i am so gay that i over balence the bad any how aint that the truth i am very glad the girls stay with you but as you say perhaps they will soon get tired of it but i hope not for i think that i will be home soon either on fourlough or discharge may be discharge i do not now know but hope that will either discharge me befor they put me in the invalids i do not want to go in that squad any way if i can help it i am going to write to the captin soon & see if he cannot do some thing for me for i hate to go in their ranks for they are not the buissness that i like either in the field or home this having a home and no home aint wat it is talked up to be for the invalids does nothing but lay around the cities and do guard duty and that is to much like nothing for me and besides i am very lame and awlways expect to be and i think now the war is over that they may let some of us go home for i am sure i done my share of it in one year any how more than some have done in five but i am not if they will only let me alone while i get well for i am very lame and will not get any better i fear but time will show and this letter will show some pretty hard times if my pen does not work better & it seems as if it wants to hang on as long as it was possible to do so on paper for it wants skip a place as big as a pin for it wants to stop i hope you will be able to read it for i can hardly do it my self somthing myuld to but it is true i can read your letters better than i can my own now my Dear little woman i want you to think all of me you can but not any of my bad tricks you must not think of them for i am not going to show them to you wen i go home i mean to make you think more of me than ever now see if i dont and you speke of / of your being affraid i would get that feaver but never fear it is not contageus and their has been no more cases but i was sorrie that John died for he was a man evry inch of him i tell you and do not tell a storie either but no more i shall write to M L Ward to day and ask him to transfer me for i want to get home and missey if i had not had a fourlough and been home i could get home very quick i could come evry week if i wanted to i could not stay a great while but i could get a pass for 48 hours and i can go home to your house in less than twelve hours any time but as long as you keep well it will not pay for it would cost 10$ to get home and back and wen i get to newark only 50 cts that is quite some difference now my Dear i want you to answer my letters now satteday you say you got two and only answered one now missy i expect to get the other one to morrow any how & you ask me how long it took to get hear well you wrote on the 20^th and i got it on the 23^rd to day and i am very glad to see that it came so quick for i have been looking for severl days for a letter from some one and now i am very glad that it has come i have not received a letter from a living sole but you i guess they have all forgotten me any way but i hate to see such work i awlways had to write first i think i will try and see how long they will wait it will not cross me much i am used to evry thing now days and hope you are much the same but then i got hardned to it i used to see things that i could not bear hardly but now it takes somthing awfull to make me care one cent and my Dear Wife i know that the Great Giver of all gave you to me for some good if it was not for you i would be one of the poor kind i know for i would hardly care wat i done or said but my great love for you makes me think and think rightly to of evry word i say and all i do so you precious that you are not forgotten any way and my long letters to Ha Ha Ha if no one writes to me but you i can take so much more time and write my letters longer yet if they are to long just let me know & i will not again trespas on your time but if they are not long enuf i will write one it will take you a week to write read then you will be satisfied i have got no more monney to send you so maybe you will not answer so quick Ha! Ha! but i have got a nice present for you if you be a good girl and dont never say that i do not love you again a very nice one i can tell you so now you can guess what it is for i will not tell you i am glad you dream of me but sorry your dream has such a bad termination as to think that i am sick now i want you to stop thinking such queir things and get fat for i am i weigh 161 lbs and if you do not hurry you will not be able to stand me wen i come home Ha. Ha. Ha. dont that make you laugh to think i am just as big a fool as ever now missy behave yourself like a good little girl and when you see me coming dont lock the door or shoot me Ha Ha i am glad to see that pap came down to hear the news i will send you all the papers i can and letters to if you have not said any thing to the Doctor yet why you need not until i hear from newark evry one is very fond of me hear and i hate to leave but it and they are nothing to you and if their is any such thing as getting transfered to newark i will be their so if Ward can not do it perhaps Joel parkening and if he will not perhaps Secteray Hanfors can now i have not writen half enuf to you but my paper is full and i must close i will send you two papers and a flag put the flag out above the door and put the morning on it any kind will do so it is black now good by and pleas answer this soon for i will be home before you know it if you do not give my love to both the girls and to father George & all the rest miss none but keep your own share i tell you good bye i have not writen enuf from you know who their is church this afternoon H H Covert

SOURCES