Marion Co KY
57^th Rig’t 9 A.M Teusday morning
Feb 4^{th 62}
Respected Uncle

i accept
the present opportunity of conversing with you by way
of mail line &c i will commence by informing you
that I am in good health and it is my earnest desire
that those lines may reach and find you and your family
all enjoying the same Gods blessing i will endeavor to
give you a small sketch of our movements since the 8^th
of Jan last we left Louisvill Ky at the above stated date
marched 9 miles camped it rained on us nearly all day
& we went to a farmers house and offered to buy
his oats to sleep on he told us that he would rather give
them to the
secesh than to sell them to us we then piched in
and took as many of them as we wanted Jan the 9^th
we marched 15 miles camped in an old woods pasture
it was low flat ground you may guss whether it
was muddy or not Jan the 10^th marched 7 miles camped
in a nice place on the side of a hill for the purpose of
prepairing Rations they is a few sheep & a little honey
in Old Kentucky and as our boys was tired of hard
crackers and old bacon they couldent stand the temptation
and the consequince was this about midnight a part of
a nice mutton and a part of a buckett of nice honey came into
our tent but you must excuse the boys for they dont get to
do so now Jan the 11^th marched 8 miles camped in the
fair ground 2 ½ miles of Bardstown we remained there
util 11 ok Jan 12^th we started on our line of march soon
as we got ready and it commenced raining when we
started and kept raining on us all the way we
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we marched 7 miles & ½ and camped 5 miles south of
Bardstown it continued raining u[n]til late at night i[t] quit
raining and turned cold and froze the ground solid Jan
the 18^th snowed a pretty good snow the first
snow that we had in old Ky Jan the 14^th moderated
Jan the 15^th we was ordered to summerset a distance
of 100 miles the 40^th 57^th & 58^th Ind Reg’ts started
on our march we marched 10 miles Camped on a cedar
hill the cedar bushes was pretty plenty shure it
rained all day but in the evening it quit raining
and turned cold it was wet and muddy on the hill
a brigad had camped there a day or two before we
had to cut the cedar bushes to spread down to keep
our blankets on to keep them off of the mud the bushes
was pretty icy for it was tolerable cold before we cut
them Jan the 16^th weather cloudy and cool no rain
marched 14 miles camped in the fair ground near
Springfield Jan the 17^th marched 11 miles passed
through Lebanon and Camped 2 miles east of the same
no rain until night i was on guard duty that
night i dont belive i never heard it or seen it rain
harder in my life our camp was situated in the woods
at the foot of a hill it continued raining until
sunday morning Jan the 19^th and it got so muddy
that we could hardly get about so they moved us
one mile further to a very beautiful camp in a
pasture field nothing of importance transpired until
the 21^st it snowed on the 26^th & on the night of the
29^th and rained pretty much all the time between
the snow’s on the morning of the 31^st at about one ok
we received marching orders so we got <rip?> out of our
beds (if such i may call them) to prepare rations for
the tramp 7 ok found us on our march we marched
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9 miles camped 6 miles south west from Lebanon and
near a small town by name of Newmarket i expect we
will remain here for a while to guard a bridge
and the secesh Jenerally the rebels burned a bridge
and meeting house a few miles ahead of us on the
30^th of Jan the first Ohio cavalry that is camped 2
miles in the rear of us captured 8 or 10 of them on the
31^st we met them with the prizinors as we came to this
place a part of a ridgemint of the same cavalry
went scouting on the first day of this month and
got into a small skirmish near green river
killing 40 rebles our loss was this one man got his leg
broken and the same shot killing his horse a company
of the 58^th Reg’t of our brigade captured 10 more of them
on last sunday 4 of them had splendid horses one
of them was a secesh captain they brought them
into our brigad and gave them their breakfast and
sent them on to Lebanon we all got a good peep
at them they looked pretty sheepish we sent out a
scouting party to day they have not returned yet
the we are expecting a fight with Buckner before
long i think that we will soon subdue the rebles
in this state i would to see you all very well
and i hope that before this time next year we
will all get to return to our homes a once
more happy people i am as well satisfied
as could be expected and i expect to be as
long as they is any rebles to contend with
to hear that you was all well give my
respects to Uncle William Kelly’s Family tell
them i have written to them but have not received
an answer yet i must close for the present time
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for it is drill time give my respects to aunt
Susan and the boys tell them to write to me
if they please so fare well
this from your nephew

George W. Jarrett
To M^r James Addington

Lebanon, Ky
Direct to G. W. Jarrette 57^th Reg’t i am
in care of Capt Dunn

Please write often for i want to hear from you all