Dearest Mother,
Hurrah!!! Hooop!!
Meeting is out! Elders Davis, Lee,
and Johnson have pronounced the
benedictation, and the Rebellion has
been dismissed. Yes.
Played, defunct, without a doubt.
The lamp of its existence decidedly out.
But, while the nation is in the
highest flow of its tide of rejoicing,
how stupendous, how terrible, is this
blow of sudden bereavement, that
has turned all of our Joy, into
intense sorrow. Abraham Lincoln,
benefactor, and second father of his
country. The Washington of the
nineteenth centuary, is dead: and at
the hand of a vile, miserable
[page 2]
wretch, not worthy to commit such
a deed on such a man.
The feeling in the Army
among the soldiers is intense in
the extreme: I have heard men
say, that if they ever got into
battle again, they never would
take any more prisoners: last night
we got a part of our back mail,
I rec'd. Mrs. Lyon's letter, one from
James and one from Eddie. There
must of course be some more
for me some-where. James writes
that my ^'money' is received by him all
right, and that Lizzie is improving.
has she been very sick?
I suppose that Eddie is
having a gay time now, him
on his spring vacation. tell him
to Just go in and win, and to keep
up my end, the same as if I were
there. Although we may not
be able to ho home till our time expires
[page 3]
yet I would not be surprised
if we would come, in two months
there is nothing more for us to do
down here. by the papers this
morning, Johnston is reported to
have surrendered, Mobile is ours and
Jack Mosby, and Kirby Smith across
the Mississippi, have applied for the
same terms granted to Lee: from the
fact that the Cavalry costs the Gov.
four times as much as any other
branch of the service, and from our
great need of curtailing our already
enormous expenses. A few of us
wise-acres have surmised that we
would be mustered out of the
service as soon, if not sooner, than
some others: our boys are getting very
uneasy indeed, now that there
appears to be nothing much for them
to do. they want to get home and get
their crops into the ground.
You don't write whether you
[page 4]
have received that express
package or not: as soon as it
comes I wish you would drop
me a line to that effect for
if it goes through all right
I have a pair of pants and
some other nice things that I
got near Petersburg, they would be
worth fifteen or twenty dollars if I
could get them through. write what
the package cost. After I had sent most
of my pay to James, the Sutler came
along, and to pay him what I owed
Just about cleened[?] me. I have but
one cent left, and that was captured
on the raid. I wish you would send
me three or five dollars. Addison Cole is
now with us, he tents with me, he is getting
along finely, his wound has healed up, he
sends his kind regards. Our Regt. is
near Petersburg, about 8 1/2 miles from here.
Ad. Cunningham was mounted and went up there
the other day, we have drawn new saddles
& equipment & expect to go to the regt. soon
I am getting tired of Camping here & will be
[written in side margin on page 4:]
glad to join my command. I have been acting regimental Quarter Master and
have had a pretty busy time of it. Write soon to Your aff. son Hervey
[written in the side margin on page 2:]
We have been dismounted now,one month and are getting quite sick
of it. we are anxious to be doing something Shoemaker has made
[written in top margin on page 2:]
us a little visit. H.E.E.
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