20th Indiana Light Artillery

Item LTR-8291

Description

Original Civil War soldier's letter. 4 pages, written in period ink.


Lavergne, Tennessee
January the 12th 1864

Ever Remembered Cousin,

I will endeavor to answer your kind and long looked for letter which I received a few days ago. I was glad to hear from you once more. We have had some of the coldest weather here this winter that has ever been seen in Tennessee. It is not much warmer yet. We have been five times a rabbit hunting. There has been several inches of snow on the ground. It is nearly all gone now.

We have good warm cabins to live in now. We can live very comfortable here. I think that we will stay here all winter. I have not seen but one person that looked like a lady since we have been at this place. I barely know what a lady looks like anymore.

This is a very lonely place to be at. There is only about three hundred troops here now. I have given up all hopes of getting to go home this winter. There is only twenty to stand guard now. We are on every third night. Our battery is scattered all along the rail road. I have not seen all of our company since we left Nashville.

I would have liked to been in Illinois to spend Christmas. If you had as dry Christmas and New Years as we had, you did not have much fun. I was in camp all the time. I seen one except our own boys. I was at Nashville last week. It was so cold that I like to froze coming out here. It is 15 miles from here to the City. The teams has gone again today. They will be back tomorrow. I think that they will have a pretty cold time of it.

There is no news here now. Grant’s Army is laying still. I don’t think that there will be anymore fighting in this department till spring.

I often think of friends that I have left far behind. Perhaps never to see again. My mind wonders back when I could enjoy civil society. But now them times have all past and gone. Perhaps never to come anymore. Oh, how soon will this cruel war be over. It has made many a sad heart and has brought many brave hearts to the grave and many more will meet with the same fate before it is over with. Yet how soon it will come to a close. No one can tell.

I am in good health and enjoy myself very well. I have stuck to my resolutions that I started out to do. And as long as I keep my right mind, I intend to stick to them. I hope when these few lines come to hand, they will find you all in good health. Please write soon.

Ever Your Cousin,

M. H. Leiter

To Miss Jennie Crumbaugh

Write soon and often. For a soldier like to get letters better than anything else.

Mart