Stafford Courthouse, VA, March 15th, 1863

Dear Wife,

We are having another cold and dreary Sunday and as usual on such days I am thinking of home. You must not suppose that it is the only time I think of home, but when the outward world is shut out from our contemplation, we naturally turn our thoughts inward and think over the past, and as distance lends enchantment to the view so when I think over the many happy days I have spent with you they seem tinged with a beauty that the present cannot realize. How often have I sit with you upon the door steps or at the window and watched the moon in its majestic course through

Stafford Court House, VA, March 10th, ’63

Dear loved Wife,

I received a letter from you last Sunday night, written after you got home from the Soldier’s Aid Society, and a precious letter it was too, it filled my heart with gratitude to you for writing it. The assurance of your everlasting love and sympathy (though I knew I had it before) was sweet to me, and it will cheer me through whatever trial, and difficulties I may be called upon to encounter, with these words ever in my mind “be of good cheer my Husband, you have all the sympathy, love, and untiring devotion, of one heart, at least.”

I will cheerfully perform my duty let what will happen,

Stafford Court House, VA, March 8th 1863

Dear Wife,

It being a dark and gloomy day my thoughts turn naturally towards my home and dear friends that gather around the old fireside and try to cheer each other with the sunlight of love when the natural sun is obscured by clouds. I don’t know why it is, but if I am ever homesick it is when the sun is shut out from the world, and nature seems to mourn its loss. So today I am not exactly homesick but I should like right well to be with you today and to pass the Sabbath in my own home, surrounded by love, and comforts, unknown in the Army but I am

March 4th, 63

Camp near Stafford Court House, VA

Dear Wife,

I feel entirely unfit to write such a letter as I want to this morning, the excitement of the last two weeks, and the depression of spirits (in consequence of leaving home) has unnerved me and I feel unfit for any kind of duty, but I must do something or I shall die off with the blues. I have material enough for a long and interesting letter, but I fear I shall fail to make it so.

I will commence from the time I left home and try and give you a history of my journey down to the present time. After I left you, I tried to cheer