Yours of the 7th came to hand some time ago, but I have not as yet taken time to answer it.2 I have been about sick with a cold on my lungs, and after my days work was done I did not feel like writing.
I hope you are enjoying good health this winter. I am going to give up my place the first of Apr. I dont think it avisable for me confine myself to a store.
My health will not admit of it. I Red a letter from Miss Howard3 last evening stating
that her sister died last fall—I had not heard from her since I left
Washington. How I pity her. loc_nk.00200_large.jpg
loc_nk.00201_large.jpg Often when my
mind wanders back to the days that I spent in Armory Square,4 I
can but cry. I often think I see her coming toward me, and the same sad smile on her
countenance as in thoes days. I cannot tell how much I owe you & Miss Howard for favors while
in Hospital at Washington. I lost a very near and dear
friend and Brother in the Service of the United States and I know how to pity thoes
that meet with similar losses.
I cannot write more at present But beleive me sincerely your true Friend although I am far away from you.
My Hearts desire is that you may live a long and happy life and when you leave this Earth you may be prepared for a better life—
Hoping to hear from you soon I close loc_nk.00202_large.jpg
Correspondent:
According to Whitman's "Hospital
Book 12" (Charles E. Feinberg Collection), Sergeant Jesse Mullery, Company K,
Fifteenth New Jersey, was in Ward A, Armory Square Hospital, on May 14, 1864.
The twenty-year-old boy had been "shot through shoulder, ball in
lung—(ball still in probably near lung)—lost right finger." On June
23, 1864, he went home to Vernon, New Jersey, on furlough, and then served as
assistant cook in the army hospital in Newark. On December 21, 1864, Mullery proposed a visit to Brooklyn. He was still
at the Newark hospital on January 23, 1865. According to his letters of May 3 and June 11,
1865, he later was able to return to active duty. By 1866, Mullery was
employed in a store in New York.