I have just this moment received your letter dated last Monday evening—dear mother, I have not seen any thing in any paper where the 51st is, nor heard any thing, but I do not feel any ways uneasy about them, I presume they are at Knoxville, Tennessee1—Mother, they are now paying off many of the regiments in this army—but about George I suppose there will be delays in sending money &c—dear mother, I wish I had some money to send you, but I am living very close by the wind—Mother, I will try somehow to send you something worth while, & I do hope you will not worry & feel unhappy about money matters—I know things are very high—Mother, I suppose you got my letter written Tuesday last, 29th March, did you not?
I have been going to write to Jeff for more than a month—I laid out to write a good long letter, but something has prevented me, one thing & another—but I will try to write to-morrow sure—
Mother, I have been in the midst of suffering & death for two months worse than ever—the only comfort is that I have been the cause of some beams of sunshine upon their suffering & gloomy souls & bodies too—many of the dying I have been with too—
Well, mother, you must not worry about the grocery bill &c, though I suppose you will say that is easier said than followed—(As to me I believe I worry about worldly things less than ever, if that is possible)—Tell Jeff & Mat I send them my love—Gen Grant has just come in town from front—the country here is all mud again—I am going to a spiritualist medium2 this evening, I expect it will be a humbug of course, I will tell you next letter—dear mother, keep a good heart—
WaltHow is Californy?—tell Hat her uncle Walt will come home one of these days, & take her to New York to walk in Broadway—poor little Jim,3 I should like to see him—there is a rich young friend of mine wants me to go to Idaho with him to make money4—