the
March 27, 1854
Orange County Camp
Near Orange Court house
Va
My Dear Wife,
I Seat my self to answer your kind and ever welcome
letter. that I received the twenty first of the presant month. and were verry glad to hear from you and the
children. and from Father & mother
& all the neighbours & to hear that you all were well. your letter found me well & enjoying
myself the best I can. & that is but little enjoyingment to be seen hear in
camp. I sincearly hope when this
reaches you it may find you & the children still enjoying good helth. for helth is one of the greatest blesings
that we can enjoy. but there is a
greater Blesing than that. That is to
be a christian. my Dear I sincerely
hope you will put your trust in the Lord.
and be ye saved upon the mild and easy termes of the gospel. my
Dear it may be that we may never meet on earth again. but if it should be the
Lord will that we should not meet on earth.
I hope we may be permitted to meet in heaven where parting Shall be no
more. Stand then in his great might. with all his strength endurd. but take to arm you for the fight. the panoply of God. That having all things done. and all your conflicts past.
you may overcome through christ
alone. and stand entire at last. you must excuse me for not writing before this
time. but the reason why I have not
writen before is that I have ben waiting for the boys to come back. we have been looking for them for the last
four or five days. and they have not
come yet and I am sorry to say that they are reported as deserters but if they
come in soon I hope they wont punish them.
Thomas Musselman started home three days after the other the other boys
left & he came in this morning & and also Mr. William H. West has
come. and brought bad news from
Stafford. They say the yankees are in
Stafford again & had ben down to falmouth.
and had taken a sitter yous up abouve falmouth. I am so distrest about it. but I hope it is nothing but arade. I am afried the boys are captured but I
hope and trust it is not so. if
it is so that you get this letter you must send me all the news. I wrote you a letter the 14 of the presant
month & the 21 I sent one to Father & one to Nanny. you must all write when ever you can get
your letters over the river. you spoke
of the little presant that I sent you.
if the yankees comes in there again you must hide it if you dont they
will take it away from you. has mr.
coal gon Back to his comand yet or not if he has net gon back yet and you see him tell him for me not to
follow her for if she had left me she might go and joy go with her. I received
a letter from Nanny the 18 of the presant month and it gave me pleasure to hear
that they were a11 well. I believe your words are about to come true about the
boys deserting. I should liked verry
mutch to have ben home with the boys to have enjoyed my self with them. it
is now time for the mail to leave camp.
you spoke of reinlisting but I am not going to do it before my time is
out and I hope this cruel war will be over before that time. no more at presant but remain your kind and
affectionate husband untill death. So good by wife
Pleas write soon and often. John W. Watson
