Sunday

July 16th 1862

To Clarinda from Peter in Utica: “I want you to come home. I want to see you so bad I don’t know what to do. “ Doing housework. “Clara I am sorry that you have staid [sic] to roses so long and not visited your folks any more….I should like to have you visit all your friends while you are there but it is to bad to live alone so long it seems to me most two months since you have been gone. Almeda is getting along quite well considering we have sush [sic] hot weather here. Rachel is taking care of her. Almeda tires her almost out she is so much like a baby she tries to have Bill stay home from his work but he won’t do it. Dr. Russell is taking care of her. “

He didn’t care much about 4^th of July and would have worked all day if they had let him. “Our folks kept a stand and I helped them some they did not make much for such fine day. … Sam Holt tried to coax me off with him to some fancy house and said he would pay the whole bill and when I spoke of my Duty to wife and dear children away from home he laughed at me…” His mother did his laundry. “Clara I will send you one dollar to come home”, he will meet her at the depot.

“There is some talk of drafting. Lincoln has called for 3 hundred thousand more men and they cant be got without Draft”