[This letter is in one hand but has two signatures, Margrat G<???> whose identity cannot be determined, and Betty Horner, whose husband, John, and his brother, Thomas, served as privates in the Orange Light Artillery (Co. G, 3rd NC Art., later Co. E, 13th Battalion NC Light Artillery).]

August the 6th 1863
State of North carlina Orange County
Sr i now take the presant oppotunety
of riteing you a fewe lines to informe you
things is goeing on heare i am a solgers wife
my husban dide in the army an left me an
six children an thouseande in the same
surcumstance i have no meat an no
corne nor wheat an what i draw will
not by but a little over one bushe of corn
a month an all so thay have fixde it so
that a soldiers wife canot get a bunch of
cotton unless thay have wool corn meat
or weat an an how can thay cloth ther
children the facttres say thay are
working fore the goverment but thay
sende the cotton to hillbogh to sell
fo 18 an 20 dollars per barrel a pore
soldiers wife cannot get it i thinke
it ought to be so thay could get cotto[n]
an ef thay is not away provide thay
will all go naked this winter an
freeze to death you have the power
to amende the mater ef you will
an it is the a pinion of a great many
that when the men starts to fifty [1]
that the nigers will kill all the 
rest
[page 2]
we have no way of making any thing
to by with an what we drawe a mon
th a man will take all we have
for one bushel of wheat a woman
sease harde times heae when husban is
to wore we coulde make oure liveinge
ef we could get the cotton by weeve
ing clouth an for the soldiers but
the men gets the cotton gets it wove
fore a little of nuthinge an makes
the great spectulation an i thinke
if is a harde case it does not matter
how much the speculators has to pay
they can make mony but we that
have to by all we eat with what
we draw we see hard times i
think that the cotton ought to be
fixed so that the soldiers wives
could get some too for they are
the ones that stands in need
we have done till we dont
know what to do and we
thought we would write and
see if you assist us we have
our famelys to clothe and our
familys to feed and i am
thinking the worse time is
to come yet Margrat G[???]
Betty Horner