Camp on Mary Halls Farm Sept 27th 1862

My Dear Wife
I now sit down to write
you a few lines to let you know how I get alone
I feel rather under the weather I have got the
Janders I was sick the day the capt left but did
not know what the matter was I feel better today
than I did yesterday Oren Wolcott is sick with
the same complaint it seems to be a general thing
for the soldiers to have them All our mounted men
are gon off some where some say to Winchester and
others to Bulls run but I dont know where but
I know we are here with out horses & I wish
we had our horses and was on the march half
of the time for I think we are a great deal healthier
when we are on the march than we are when
we lay still Ive not had a chance to see the
cappitol yet except from a distence I hope before
we leave here I can get a chance to go over to it
Ill tell you what I wish I had & that some of your apple
Pies or a s[q]uash Pie I have got so it will make
me sick at my stomache to see meat Beans or fried
bread I was over to the hospital last night
& they were Boiling Potatoes so I told Orange I
wanted one he told me to eat all I wanted I dident
do that for I was afraid it would hurt me but I
eat two of them & one of the Boys Henry Stroud
gave me my hat most full of apples today
& I have been eating apples most all day
my best friends or the boys I like the best are
gone an that is the two Sager boys and Mort Baker
& Horace Drew those two Sager boys are the best
boys I ever saw Bill D[??] has some
great storys to tell dont he I have heard that
Ed French & Nathen Bassett & all our boys taken
at Mount Jackson are at Annapolis so I
supose they will be home before long I was
just reading of a business mans trials
[page 2]
and tribulations but if a business man has such
trials they ought try a soldiers life a while for a
while we dont have [any?] we dont even
have to look out for our own food it is all
furnished for us & when we are on a march we
are content to lay down on the ground with
the sky for our covering if I ever get home
dont you think it will have been a good thing
for us that I went to war I shant be half as
dainty as I used to be y why that will almost
pay you for my being gon as long I see now
where I have done wrong a great meny times
and will try and reform in the future oh how I wish
the war would end before winter but that is most
imposible now if our Government had of taken
hold of the war in earnest it would have been
done but the rebles have been all the time in
earnest while our Generals have been fooling
along with the war just to make money I tell
it is a prety serious thing to fool with when so meny
loose there life by it I hope all the Officrs that have
tried to keep this war along in order to make
money out of it will find a soldiers grave for thiere
pains Jon wanted to know if I could
not get a furlo & come home I think that the [law is?]
so that there cant a furlow be got & if there could it would
not be best unless I was agoing to be sick long for it
would cost about 20 dollars to go home and back
here but I must close for I dont feel first rait so
good bye for the time
From your affectionate Husband
To Thos M Covert
P O Covert

PS This is a leaf of a secesh acct Book

Johnson McLane and Robert White Just come into
camp they left Ed French at Alexandra they say they have
seen verry hard times & they look so they say
they have seen our men lay down & die & the last worde
they said was begging for bread