17th Indiana Infantry

Item LTR-8605

Description

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


Nashville Tenn., April 24, 1865

Dear Wife,

Your kind letter of April 17th is at hand. I am glad to hear you are well and the friends the same. I have almost recovered from my spell of diarrhea, although I am yet very weak and poor. If you would see me now, you would think I had a long spell of hard sickness.

I got a letter yesterday from J. W. Keyser, dated April 12th. He says he is well and likes soldiering very well, but he would rather be at home. He brags mightily with the bounty he received. He says he sent $475.00 home to his family and then he goes on in as much as to say he done well. He don’t want the assistance of no one. I wrote him a letter, telling him I wished him well and hoped he would get home again.

I think you had not got the money that I sent to you when you wrote, or you had let me know. The letter that I got today was enclosed with one that Abraham wrote. You want to know if I think I can come home before my time is up. I don’t think that I can. If the war was to close today, it would probably be 2 or 3 months before I could come home. I think the best for you would be to wait patiently till my time is up. I may probably be discharged before my time [is] up. I can’t tell. All I ask is my health and strength and if it is God’s will, that I am permitted to return home with sound limbs and body. I know that I can make a living and if didn’t get $400 or 500 dollars bounty, you know we have a good piece of land and if it is half cultivated, we can live on it. But it is foolish for me to talk about anything like that now.

Well with this I will close, hoping you are all well. I have sent to my regiment for my descriptive roll. When it comes, I will make application for a discharge. But I do not know how soon or how long that will be. No more at present.

From your husband,
Jacob D. Row

To his wife Hannah

Cumberland Hospital, Ward 21
Nashville, Tenn.