Aug. 1862

Aug. 1862

Aug. 9 (?), 1862
Dear Kate   I take pen in hand to write a few lines   I send it with Malen Pratt which was discharged on act of a weak brest   I am well and I hope that you are all well and doing well   Understand that everythin in the produculine is rasing if so you may keep the hay a while longer and the hogs you can use you own judgmen about the them with the advice of Colston or some of the rest of the folks   We had a very hard march, we started on Saturday night at tenoh to Cot of Morgan with two thousand Calvary or rather get in his rear   We marhed to Versail a distance of fifteen miles again threeoh clock and laid down on the ground and slept until seven oh and then we started
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Larnsburg which is west from Irsists and south of Frankfort and Versails is south east of Frankfort   The plan was to get a force in rear of Morgan and then cut him of with another force which started from Frankfort about the same time that we did to Larsburg   The advance Regiment that went on double quick in wagons and took the rebels scamils ahead of us instead of letting them remain in camp   They shelled them and the scedadled and they got Orangeburg about two hours before our force reaced Laranceburg from Fran which was expected to get agead of Morgan   We came up to Larnsburg and was very disappointed a _____ to find Morgan had escaped
       Notes; 
     Even though this letter has no date I've fixed it from the military records of Malen Pratt who was Rejected by the military surgeon on Aug. 9, 1862.
     The last few lines of this letter has been to badly damaged to read

       My Thoughts
     Letter Condition- Letter was written on a patriotic stationary with a National Flag before a sunset.   The caption below reads 'Our Flag is still there.'   He used a pen inj good condition with quality ink as the letters are well formed with hardly any ink blums.
     He notes that after their first forced march they slept on the ground.   At this point in the war the tents in use were the Common 4 man or twelve man Sibley tents.   The men depended on the baggage wagons for tents at night.   These wagons had not caught up with them.   All the men had that night was one wool blanket and a gum or rubber blanket.   If the whether was poor the men would pair up, one gum blanket was laid down, two men would lay down together.   The second gum blanket pulled over them.   If it rained you put you hat or knapsack over your face and tried to sleep through it.   You would keep your ammunition box on your chest to keep it dry.