Savannah, Georgia December 31, 1864
Dear Barbara
I wish you a happy New
Year and many of them. You will not get
this till January and I presume that 2 or 3 more are still on the road as well
as a lot of fizzle-jigs and gingaws. I
got a letter from you today and answer it now as I am burning my last candle
and don’t know when I can get more. I
got a letter from Fisher today also and have answered it at once. I sent a letter today to Cincinnati for
Pitmans Photography for Jane. She will
get it in a day or two after you get this I guess. I want some of the ink stuff before I get It. I wish you would send some every month. I want the red kind first. Perhaps you will have to buy some. You can send half an ounce if you choose and
that will last 6 months nearly but I do not want more of the logwood than a
tablespoonful a month. A tablespoonful
of the red last 6 times as long as the logwood and don’t color my paper and
clothes ---- any leaks out as the logwood does. I am very glad that Ira is still better. I sent him some horses (pictures) yesterday
and a bundle of gold labels etc for our children and any one you choose to give
some to. I sent a white thing for Jane
yesterday to wear like a cape or mantilla or God knows what you call it and I
have a silk one to send to you that I have been keeping to send by Ruklenbeck,
but he cannot get his furlough so I will send by mail. I meant it for Christmas present but twill
be last tho just as good. I am afraid to send all at once so shall
send 5 or 6 times and shall have to let you pay the postage. I may get a chance to buy stamps but if no I
will send the money to you to buy them.
I have got my money in pretty well and sent out again. Don’t say much about how much I make but I
will tell you, and you can see by what I pay out that I have got ahead
some. I sent 250 to Fisher and 50
dollars to Hedges to buy that lot in Denmark.
The price is 250 and I want to fix it so as to send George E. on to
school. The ______ will pay the
interest on it. Don’t tell any one of
this, unless there is a need of it. I
sent 50 dollars for Gold pens and 30 for valentines and 5 dollars for paper and
envelopes and 50 to Ira for pills and 30 to agriculturist for papers and
Jewelry and Arthurs Home Journal for you.
And 2 dollars for photography and 2 for the New York Tribune and 5 for
spectacles and have some left and 20 due me.
All paid out or sent --- 474
dollars and enough to make up 500. Our
__________ have 4 months pay due as tomorrow – 64 dollars each but don’t know
when we will get it. Take good care of
things and yourself and the children and we will be pretty well off in a few
years more. We are worth now nearly 3000
dollars if we don’t lose that land or meet with some accident. We can manage our business if folks will let
us alone I think. You ask what kind of
a fellow Cairns was. There were two,
John and Aleck. I don’t think much of
them. John is much the best and stole
Burn’s poems from me and I think he got some money once but I was not
sure. Don’t invite him there much or he
will _____ you half his time and carry
away some book or other. No harm is
watching him pretty close. You don’t
spell Jonas right. In the last letter
you spelled it “Johass”. That looks bad. I am glad the children are going to school. Your writing is very good - better than mine
often but sometimes you are to care-
less about spelling. You spelled salt, “sault” and spare “spair” and coal oil “cole
oil”, there “thare” and no letters “know letters”. Tell Charley that we have been around where we could not send
letters to anyone for the rebs were all around us for 50 or 100 miles every
way. We shall not be so again before
next summer if ever I think. Guess we
shall go into South Carolina and take Charleston next. Osterhous says “we goes where we please and
if there is no roads we makes ‘em and if they don’t love our flag we makes ‘em
fear it --- G. d.”.
I
suppose you have killed the hogs and got the work done that you spoke of. I cannot tell you but you must do as you
think best about things and if you wish to know about what I would do ask
Talbott what he thinks best. He knows
me and my ways best and will tell you if you ask him for I told him to do so. _____ will do if he will only say it out
but he is not so well acquainted with my way as Talbott. You wrote about Fox. He has not paid me but I can make it right
with him before long. I will settle all
with him. As to his being married don’t
believe that yarn. He is married too
often. He had a wife and kept a house
in Paducah and never cared more about her after he left. Some say he had two there and I presume he
has a _____. I hope you will not get tired of waiting for a letter but suppose
you will net none for 5 or 6 weeks but now I can
keep up again.
My next will be No. 1 for 1865 and you had better begin again with the
New Year. I hear that we will be sent
to Iowa to be mustered out. If so we
shall be through fighting before our time is out into 2 weeks or so. I am not sure but the war will end in the
spring. I hope so although I can make
more money if it goes on. I shall watch
for a team if I go through Tennessee or up
the Mississippi River but not if I go by New
York. George is on picket tonight and I
have written till nearly midnight and must turn in or I shall not wake to get
breakfast ready. Great breakfast they
will bet. A pint of strong coffee and
no more. They can eat hard tack and if
they have any sowbelly they fry it themselves.
I send some verses for Jane and Charley they are funny. Also a book mark for you ie a Baynum label. Ain’t it hansome.