Smithfield Va Oct the 5 th [1861]
Dear father I seat myself in order
to drop you afew lines to inform you that
we are in tolerable good health at present hope
this may find you all injoying the same blessing
I have nothing of interest to write though I
will try to give you a little news nearly all
our company has had the chils but most of
us hav got over them William & myself has
both had them but we have got over them
we have been throwing up entrenchments to
protect us from the enemies fire if they should
happen to come but I dont believe they will
ever land on this side of james river for there
is several batteries on the bank of the river
& there is several thousand soldiers near here
I cannot tell you anything about the war more
than you have heard we have elected lieut
P.W. Roberts capt & E. W. Herndon [1] 1st lieut
I think capt Roberts will make us as good
a capt as Vance I am willing to him
we are building winter quarters but I hope
we may never occupy them for there is a
probability of us going to col Vances reg
nearly all the company are anctious to go
we received a couple of letters from you a
few days since the first was directed wrong
[page 2]
William wrote to you a week or two since
we will want our over coats after a while and
we want you to have us a good blanket apece
made but you need not send any of them
til we write to you again we dont need them
now and we can get them any time as there
is some men always passing and we dont want
them till we see whether we go to N carolina
or not we expect to get our pay in a few
days we got our pay up to 20th June we will
get our pay to 30th aug we will send you some
when we get our pay [???] sent [????]
a peece to buy us a uniform paper & envelopes
are and high here but we are making out
very well yet and everything else is high and
hard to get but we have done prety well
so far we received a letter from sam a few
days since which stated he had volunteered
well it looks a little like all the men in
buncombe was going to volunteer I think
you had beter stop for buncombe has done her
part there may be a few lazy scamps around
the out s[c]irts of the county that ougt to be sent
to some fort to work they are not fit to fight
I expect you are scared moren than we are we hear the
cannon firing every day and it dont scare us a bit so Ill
come to a close I remain your son
Jacob E Patton
[on top of page, upside down]:
you will direct your letters in to care capt Roberts
F Co F 4th reg NC volenters