York town v.a. April 24th
1862 Mrs Bost Dear friend I now
Seat my Self to inform you that I
Receevd a letter from you a fiew minuts
ago and now endevour to ancer it
we have Been her at yorktown for some
time and have Been Exspecting a Battle
Every Day cince we landed But it has
not Come off yet but the prospects is very
faverable for a heavy Battle I think
it will happen some of these Days Before
long some say it is very Doubtfull whether
there is a Battle her or not But I tell you
there is Eny amount of troops heir on Boath
Cides and if we Do have a Battle heir
it will Be a Right one it will Be the
Bloodiest Battle Ever faught in the united
States But all that I Can ask for is
that we may onley come out more than
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Conquers But there is a heavy Battle
Depending there is a great number of us
that have never herd Bomb shells fly
till we Come heir But we have herd
them frequentley cince we landed at this
point But their has not Been a man in
our Regiment hit By one But one and it was
so far Spent that it did not hurt him
I hope we may all come off so But I
know that there are Bound to Be a great many Killd
if there is a Battle faught heir and it is
very uncertain whoes lot it will Be I
Believe this is like Evry thing Elce what
Ever is to Be will Be and if I am to Be
Killd her it will Be so and if not
that will all Be so But I haven thought
They have Ever Casted a Ball for me
yet But that dos not make it so nor
would it make it so if I was to think
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that I was going to Be Killd that
would not kill me But some of
us are Bound to see hard times
Before long and we Cant tell
who it will Be But we can all hope
that it will not Be us we are generly
all well and all seem to be willing
willing to go into it and Do the Best
they Can all appear to Be willing to
Do their part in this matter there is
great Confusion in the army concerning
this pressing matter oald W.R.D.
my oald friend and Mr [?????]
is going home as soon as their time is
out but I for one am pressed into
servis and I suppose that I shall
have to stay till the war is Ended that
is a Bad Buisness But they say Evry thing
is fair in war But I Cant think so
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in this Case But I am willing
to Serve my time in the war as long
as it lasts if I live and keep my
health But I would like to go home
once and a while and then I would
not mind staying in the war But this
thing of never getting home is what Rather
B[oors?] me at this time I think I will
get their Some day I must Come to a
Close soon by asking you to write to
me soon you will plears give all
in qureing friends my very Best Respect
iff their Be Eny such Mr W.R.D. Bost
is well as usuel and our companey generly
I would send you some stamp But I
am out at this time I loste 3 dollars
worth and Evry stitich of Cloth I had
onley what I had on pleas write soon
and give us all the news you friend cincearley
till Death J. W. Gibson To Mrs A. A. Bost