Camp Parole VA

Near Alexandria

Sunday August 23^rd [sic no year, should be 1863]

Dreadful hot, too warm to write with any comfort. Still hasn’t gotten a letter from her and anxious to hear if she got the money. “Dear Clara it was a year ago yesterday since I enlisted and how long it seems since I left you god onley [sic] knows how long it yet will be before I see you maybe never. But I hope before another year has Past & gone the war we are engaged in will [sic- missing “be”] over never to come again.” Lengthy discussion of whether or not they will be exchanged and when: “I am prepared for better or for worse let come what may but oh how Bad I want to see you if I could onley [sic] come home for a few days just to see you & the Children once more”. Lay awake last night thinking about them and thinks “oh how Bitter would be the parting of the second time & perhaps it would be better if god did not see fit to let [sic- missing “me”] come home just yet for it would be a hard thing for me to come back again. I have often thought of our Parting it was a hard one but it was perhaps for the Better. I merely had a glimpse of all that I held most Dear on earth I little thought to leave you so.”

Has heard often from the Regiment lately and how much they have suffered. “That noble Band of men that left Rome last fall numbering about nine hundred men is now Reduced to about one hundred & seventy or eighty men the Lieutenant Col Commands it now and them that are with the Regt writes to us that if we can posibly [sic] keep away from it we had Better for they say they have nothing but hardships & abuse now the 4^th Oneida has not seen much of the war yet there are some of its members here in Convalisent Camp & I was talking with them & they say they have never seen a grey Back or Rebel yet they have had a good time around the fortifications [sic] while our Regt has endured all the hardships and Privations of war”. He has just gotten a couple of papers such as they distribute around every Sunday and will send them to her since he thinks she’s never seen them. Lengthy closing “tell little Ida her papa will come home one of the days.”