June the 26th 1863
Camp Near Shelbyville Tenn
Dear Wife and children it is with the graitist of pleasure
that I Seat my Self to drop you a few lines
to let you know that I am in comin helth
at present & I hope when these few Lines comes
to hand they may find you injoying the
graitst of helth I received your kind which
gave me grait satisfaction to here from you
& to here you was all well & all of the connection
was well I recived yours of the 11 of June whi
ch was the 2 leter I have receive from you
I am glad to here you are geting a long so well
with your crop & that your wheet is good &
you got it took keer of I am glad to here bud
it geting a long with his crop & stears bud I want
you to go it and do all you can & try to mak
all you can to eat for your Mother and sisters
& litel Brother & for me a gainst I come home
My dear children I want you all to be
good Children & mind your mother untill I
come home I think through the merseys of
god I Shall be per mited to get home after a
while but I do not know when
[page 2]
I have Seen James Nelums this morning
he is as well as comin and Sends his love & respe
cts to you & the connection all and wants you all
to rite to him I Saw Cravin haris here & he wants
Washington to rite to him he is in the 26 Ala
Regt in Company I he was well and so fat I
did not know him and passed him by as
a strainge I also Seen Franklin Or?>led the
other day he was in tolerabel helth I have rote
to the boys at war trais [1] to know if they
had herd from H.J. Gilliland and I have not
got eny answer from them and when you rite to
me a gain if you have herd eny thing a bout him
I want you to rite for I want to here from him
Tell W. C. Webb to not think hard of me nor
none of the Connection for not riting a seperate leter
to him a bout Jasper I have not herd eny thing
more than you have all redy received for
the old man that told us a bout him has
forgot the mans name where Jasper died at
and w caint find out eny more a bout him
unless it Shold be by chance thes things is hard
but gods will mus be done and let us not complain
[page 3]
I want to Se you all very bad you statid
in your leter that the children was all taking
on a bout me I dont want them to do that at
all for there is no use in that that nor I dont
want you my dear to think long of my absence
for if its gods holy will I will soon return
home & may his will be done with us all and
may we be resined to his will we are exp
ecting a fight here we are fixin for it ever
day a thorowing oup Brest works I dont know
when we will fite but it is thaw we will fite
Shortly we have a heep of very hevy duty to
perform such gard & working on Brest works
I am a detail 1 day to the Brest works and the next
day I go on guard we get a plenty of Bred to eat
now we have no rite to grumble a bout our
rashins such as it is and we aut to feel thank
full that it is no worse with us than it is I
feell thankful that it is no worse I will say
to you wheet crops is very good here corn crops what
I have seen looks fine it is raining & has bin 2 days
we have had a heep of rain here all this month
[page 4]
My dear Wife & children I caint rite to you
how bad I do want to Se you all and I hope
I will be sporn and you all blessed and I shall
be enabld to get home soon I want all of the
connection to remimber me in there prares
and I want to Se them all and I want
them to rite to me Simeon McDonald
is riting this for me he is as well as comin
we are in the saim Mes I want you all to
do the best you can I must come to a close
for this time by daying I sill Remain
yours in Bonds of love untill death

Wm B Gilliland
To Wife & Children
Friends I want you to rite to
me and not fail Rite all of the
nuse you can and how ever thing
is going So Farewell for this time