Townsend Bridge Ky
June the 22nd 1863

Dear friend
[Ado?] Cousin I take
my pen in hand to pen you
a few thoughts I have nothing
of importance to write but I will
do the best I can under the
present Circumstance I received
Your kind and truly welcome
letter of the 12th this morning
I was very glad to hear from you
and espiacly to hear of your glad
health this leaves us all well
and harty and I hope it will
find you all injoying the same
blessing Well Mary Jane I
[page 2]
must tell you that I was real
mad this morning yesterday
I went and bot a dozen of nice
onions and payd ten cents for
them and intended for to have
a nice mess for breakfast but
when went to get them they were
like the Irishmans f[lee?] they
wasent there some rascal had
stolen every one of them but three
you had better believe I was
mad enough to figh

We have great times here
eating mulburys I and George [???]
went out anyhow and a half the
other day and we got about a gallon
and we could of got five times
as many but did not want
them I believe there is a [?????]
comes in camp every day the
Cherys are getting ripe now
[page 3]
and Ill bet we will make
them suffer I am a going
to have a mess of potatos and
beens some of these nights if
I get in the guard house for
it I think we will have to go out
and find a bee tree some of these nights
I dont want you to think that we
wont steal anything for you know
that it is not rite for a Soldier to
steal, but I would like to find
another bee tree like we used to find
last winter or some wild chickens or
turkeys we have to hunt them after
night for we are not aloud to shoot and
they are so wild we cant catch
them only after night but we have
coght so many of them we know
just how to doit now

We have very good times here
now we have plenty to eat and
ware and not much to do
but we will soon have to go
[page 4]
[keep?] niggers to do it for us
we have got about six weeks
work to do on our fort we have
a cellar to dig under it ten feet
square and six, feet deep and it
to wall up with logs and cover
with logs and we have rifle
pits to dig all around it
and fifty feet out each way
they are to be ten feet wide at
the top and six at the [bottom?]
and eight feet deep the Colonel
says he is going to have nigers
to do it for us if he dont
it will take us all sumer
for we are to lazy to work
They are cutting wheat here
to day they are offering two
dollars per day for hands and
cant get them at that
I must close pleas excuse
bad scrall I remain your cousin
as ever H P Johnston
Please write soon T M J Johnston
[1] PS you will find enclosed a likeness It is rather a better one
than the other