Camp Near Middletown
Saturday July 5th 1862

My Dear Wife
As I now have a few
lesure moments I thought I would improve
them by writing to you I recevied your letter
of the 29th last night I was real glad to hear
from you and to hear that you were all well
it does me a great deal of good to hear from you
and I know you are all the time anxious to hear
from me.. you know that we are liable to be
in battle any day & you dont know what the
fate of any of us may be but you lay all your anxious
fears about me aside for I will come home
safe sometime I feel a good deal uneasy about
Jim he is sick he has had the camp disentary
ever sence he enlisted almost & Zean Northway
& the o[t]her Doctor we have both think he ought
to be discharged but there is some cowardly
whelp there in Orwell that wrote to Capt
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Bowe that he was agoing to play sick for
to get out of the army if you were to see
him you would know better than that for
he is sick & pretty bad off & if that man
that wrote that will just mind his own
business & enlist & come here I will go
with him into Battles & dainger till his cowardly
knees knock togather & I dont think it would
take much to do that I would like to see
the cowardly dog here but he dare not
come & go through half the danger that
Jim has I have not found out for certain
who it was that wrote but I will & then
if ever I get home he will have to take
the sick were sent off from Strasburgh
yesterday morning & I cant find out for certain
but Jim went with them I dident want
he should go for I could get him light
bread & see that he had enough to eat
such as he could eat but I could not
help his going he dont know about
that letter I thought it was not best
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to tell him I went out from camp about
2 miles this moring & got my breakfast
it was at a farmers house where Henry
Sager & I had traided for & bought a good
deal of Bread Pies & milk I went out last
night for milk for Supper & they wanted
I should come out in the morning & get
breakfast with them so as I had to go out in
the moring for some bread we were getting
baked I told them I would come the man
had been at us for quite a while to have one
of us stay at his house for a gard to keep
the soldiers from distroying his property he
is a good union man when he see me
comming he came out & says he I am glad
to see you for I see you have come to stay
for you have your arms all with you but I
told him I had not come to stay for we had
got marching orders we got them after we
were in bed they were to be ready to start
at four oclock next morning so I got up &
while the rest were packing up I went
after the bread & my breakfast the man
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put my horse (or the horse I was riding
mine haveing Selabrated the fourth by up
& dyeing) in the barn & fed him & I got a good
breakfast & when I asked him what the bill was
he said not any thing I was welcom to
it & when I started off he wished me all
kinds of good luck I tell you there is some first
rait folks here if you will only use them well
when we first went to this house they
acted as if they would just as leave we would
not come but we treated them well & payed
for all we got & the soon acted as if they were
glad to see us I think the best way to do is to
use evry body well we could get any thing
that this man had after we had been there
a few times
Well I must tell you about my horse he
got the distemper & last Sunday it rained
all day & he caught cold & died I think Uncle
Sam had better send me home or I will kill
the horses he has got the one that fell through
or jumped into the hole in the bridge was just
about as good as dead the last I saw of him
& then this one died I felt real bad to have him
die but it could not be helped I took the
best care I could of him & he was gaining till
he was taken sick & then he died pretty quick
one of the boys just come along & said they had a horse
for me it is one that got its leg hurt & some of the
army left it & thought it was good for nothing
but its leg is getting well & it is a pretty horse
& I will take it Horace Drew has been promoted
to 8th corpral Jim Joiner has been reduced to the ranks [1]