A LETTER TO HIS PARENTS Camp in a hut
at the Little Tenn river E.Tenn. Mr. & Mrs. Huntzinger
Affectionate father & Mother I am happy of the presant oportunity of trying to answer yours of Jan the 14th which came to hand a fiew days ago & was received & read with the greatest of interest. I was glad to hear that you was all well. I am well & very hearty at presant. & I do hope this letter will come to your hand in dew time & find you all in fine health & in good spirits. Well father I was glad to hear that you had received my check for that money. I hope that before this time you have the money. Well you said that you was glad to get my letter for you had not heared from me for 3 weaks & was uneasy. Well dont be uneasy when you dont hear from me for I cant write when we are on a march & the mail dont go out very often & it is so far from home that it takes a good while for the mail to go through & so it is a good while sometimes till you get a letter from me. Well I was sorry to hear that Levi had took cold in his leg & that his wound was wors. I am afraid that he will loose his leg if he hant careful yet. I wish you would let me know how to direct to him. For I hant received a letter from him since he got home. You stated that James s leg was sore. & I am afraid he will have another time of misery again with his leg. I am glad that he is goying to School. I received a letter from James when I received yours. It was dated Jan 6th & I received a letter from Miss Eliza E Hutchison. Stating the death of dear Armanda. Miss Eliza writ a large letter & told me how she died. Well I was glad to hear that she came to her rite mind before she died & that she died happy & has left a lasting testimoney that her peace was made with god. Well how little did I think when I had my miniture taken that you would place it with the corpse of one I loved so dearly & that it would be burried with the letters that I have penned to Armanda. Miss Eliza sent me a lock of hair which I expect to ceap as long as I live. I expect problay you saved it for me. I dont see how the word got started up there that I was killed when I was not wounded even. I greaved me to think that Armanda was misinformed about my death & died believeing that I was dead. Oh how I will miss her kind affectionate letters. She was a true love & when she said she loved me she spoke from her heart. But I have give her up knowing that god is a good & a just being & will bring all things to pass all right in the future. Well as we have left Marysville since I last writ to you I will tell you that we are about 17 miles from town on the Little Tenn river. We are quartered in corn pens & darkey huts. My mess is in a hut & we have 30 acres of corn to shuck for the present & I do not know what we will do when we get that done. The Regt is all at Marysville except Comp's C & I & as we are detailed away from the Regt it may be a month or two before we get back. We may stay around through the cuntry accumulating foriage for the troops in front & they will send trains after the corn when we get it penned. Well we are well satisfied here. All that we fear is there might be a squad of rebel gurillahs dash in & goble us but I hope that we wont meat with such luck. Well this is a beautiful day & I have eat a very hearty dinner of fresh hogg & potatoes & parsnips. & we have a mess of eggs & a mess of fish & Cap traided the beef that was sent with us for our two companys for 15 gal of molasses & he got us some meat & we will get some meal tomorrow. February the 4th it is a beautiful morning & I am in fine health & I will have a chance to send this letter out today to Marysville & I expect we will get mail tomorow evening or day after. We have plenty [This was written on both sides of a large sheet of paper. At the bottom of the second page is the note: "Turn to another sheat." But the other sheet is lost. FBL ] |