Friday, August 16, 1861
RICHMOND, VA
Dear Mother,
This morning after coming back from drilling I am much wearied. I seat myself to tell you that I am in my tent by myself and to tell you that I am well this morning. I promised you that I would write you the truth if I could but it is impossible to do it although I am allowed to write what I please. When I wrote you the first letter I had just got here and had not seed much then but my eyes has been opened since thenŠThere is two fellas just come out of the guardhouse. They was put in there night before last. I wrote to you that it was cold here and it was, but in the morning it got as hot a day as I ever experienced. The sweat is running down my cheeks right now. We have had enough to eat till last night. We did not have a bit of bread for supper, only what we bought because the quartermaster drawed rations for five days and it give out. I got permission from my captain and went up in town. There I saw the greatest place I ever did see! Atlanta is nothing more than a kitchen to a Big house. I will tell you folks that there is no use trying to compare nothing to what I have saw since I left home. I saw Washington's Monument. It was away up a stack of fine rock and he is on the largest horse the I ever saw. Washington is on the horse wit his sword in his hand. The horse and man looks as natural as nature itself. Just get out of the way because it looks just like its coming right onto you! It is larger than any man or horse you ever saw. I also shook hands with old Zachary Taylor yesterday evening. He looks just as natural as the man itself. It is about the size of a man and is made of tombstone. You can see the coat buttons and neck tie, even down to his shoestrings. Well, I really can't tell you as plain as it is. Here we are 750 miles apart and I am here trying to tell you the conditions! We expect to be called omorrow as soon as we get drilled enough but we are ready to start anytime. They had a fight in Missouri on the 16th. We killed and wounded three or four thousand and was still in pursuit of them with a large body of cavalry and was likely to destroy all of them which I am in hopes they will. They had a fight in thirty two miles of us on Wednesday night. The Yankeys killed and wounded five hundred of our men but we whipt them in the fight. We don't know how many we killed of them but they drove fourteen hundred of the Yankeys up in Richmond "to take supper with us!"
WIth love,
Tom
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