Richmond Va Winder hospital
the
June 16 1862
My dear Father & Mother
I take my pen
in hand to drop you a few lines to let you
know how we are getting along We have been in
the hospital four weeks we have had the chills and
dierear I am a getting about well I think I will go to
our regiment to marrow Jacob is on the mend smartly
but he is very weak yet he is going to try for a furlough
but it is uncertain whether he will succeed in getting it
for it is a very hard matter to get one under any
circumstance We received a letter from you
the other day dated June 1th We wer truly glad
to hear from you and that you were all well you said you
had not received any letter from us for some time I
wrot you a letter about the 25th of May I do not know
whether you received it or not it may have got misplaced
I received one from sam that he wrote before he started
back to his regiment There is thousands and thousands
of sick soldiers here in the hospital and a great
many diing every day: Doctor Cooper is hare
and has been eight or ten days we was truly glad
to see him he says he will stay several days
yet before he starts home Columbus [1] is getting
[page 2]
better and [??????????????] boys [2]
J C is getting about stout stout
again: [????] died since we left fort [???] Thomas [????]
and J [????] our regiment is station
some four or five miles from here
We are still expecting a big fight but
there is no telling when it will come of
I suppose you have heard all about
the chickeahomny battle it was faught som
three weeks ago about seven miles from here
heavy losses on boath sids our men drove
the enemy back and took several peaces
of artillery and a great many other things
I tell you the yanks will have
something to do before they take
Richmond we have a powerful army
around Richmond Well I must close
unless I had something worth writing
Tell b I will send her my yankee
sweetheart likeness with doctor Cooper when
he goes home Write when you can
your son
W. M. Patton