Convalisent [sic] Camp VA

Friday July 31st 1863

Got her letter and one from Joey, glad all are well as he is. “I have not written to Mr. Hart yet & did not mean to untill [sic] I was gone a year But I think he has done well & I think you have Done well with it but I don’t think bill [Daywell?] ever Done much out of his own Pocket for any body But I think Mr Hart a good and kind man & if you think it is right I will write to him & thank him for what he has done for you because he will of course Expect you have wrote to me about it”. Has not gotten paid. Thank Joey for her letter and picture, he would write to her but doesn’t have postage stamps. “Poor little Ida how bad was she hurt I wish I could see her I guess she remembers her papa Pretty well But willie I think He will forget me or has done so long ago.”

“We have had quite a time here the Paroled Prisoners has been kept under so close confinement that they have Revolted 2 or three times & they have placed us in another Camp with a strong guard around us & they have cut down on the Rations so they [sic] men did not have enough to eat the Comanding [sic] officer of the Camp has to keep himself very Close to his Quarters or he is called all sort of names & hooted at & in a number of cases he has been stoned.”

Hopes she’ll send him a picture because he wants to see her so bad. Word just came while he’s writing that they’ve been exchanged but he doesn’t believe it. “I am sorry to here of [kates?] Baby & I hope it will live if her Children had lived she would have had quite a family by this time”. Closing.

“P.S. I forgot to tell yesterday I got a letter from the Col of our regt with a strong recommend for a furlough it was wrote the 8^th of June and it is now to late I might of come home just as well as not if I had got it in time it was for me and Dimbleby”