Franklin: John Smith to Grandmother, March 6 1863
Summary:
Smith describes camp life and remarks upon the terrible winter weather. He goes
on to complain about the war's length, angrily questioning the motives of
"rebels" and complaining about Virginia's terrain. Smith concludes by recounting
a recent skirmish with "rebel" forces. He goes out of his way to mention seeing
a "dead rebel."
March 6th 1863
Camp of the 16th Pa Cavalry
Dear old Grandmother
I have [illeg.] seated myself to write you A few lines to let you know that I am well and hardy [illeg.] I hope you
are all enjoying the same health and happiness and
further - I have been writing to the other friends
but I never wrote to you yet I always neglected it
and in fact I have hardly time to write we are on duty that I hardly get time to
write we have very hard times now the men and horses
are dying the weather is very
unhealthy about 2 clear days in A week
[page 2]
and we go on picket 4 days in A week. we got
out 10 miles from camp and then we must lay out 3 nights in A week no matter how
bad the weather and the weather is as cold here as it tis up there and more snow we have had A
great deal of snow this winter so we are exposed to
great deal of cold weather and then that's not all we don't get our full rations we suffer for the want of more to eat and we
can't
buy anything for we have no money we never got any pay
yet since we are out and [unclear: no] hopes
of getting any yet
[page 3]
and further this war is
A queer thing to me there is no hopes of it coming to an
end yet everything
seems
[unclear: to] wrong I still had some hopes of it coming to A close but I
expect to put in my 3 years now and I don't see what they are fighting for and another thing as
long as our army stays in Virginia they will whip the rebels for A country like
this for it's nothing but woods hills and mountains this
is an awful country if I could get out of it I would
stay another day if it rains A half a day the roads gets that muddy that we can
[page 4]
hardly get along we [illeg.] out on A scout last week we was going 2 days & A half and we
[unclear: went] 30 miles from camp and the mud was up to the horses' knees and we [illeg.] mud all over and
it [illeg.]
[illeg.] the time [unclear:
we're
] out we were after the rebels but we did not get any they drove our pickets in took several
prisoners and killed
several but the rebels lost more than we did I seen one dead rebel he looked [unclear: hard]
[illeg.]
from your friend
John Smith
Answer soon and direct
John Smith
[illeg.]16th Pennsylvania
Cavalry
Washington
D.C.
