Silas Stepp to Eleanor Stepp

                            June .6. day .18.64

dea[r] wife  it is with pleasure i seat my Self this morn

ing to rite you aline to let you now i am yiet aliv

and is well  i hope this will come to hand and find

you all well and dooing well as could bea expected

all is quiet along our lines  a report come to camps

last nite  they was fiting in v a  wee have now [= no] partic

ulars yiet  wee fair perty well now  wee get meal and

flower and meat and peas and some fish  wee fair better

now then wee have cence wee have bin here  the

health of the com is tolerable good  some is complaining      [com = company]

alittle  i am sorry to here you have had such ahard

time and has bin pestered sow much  i wood bea sow

glad to bea there to help you  you must bare it the

best you can  i tel you i often think of you  i hope

the time aint fur of[f] that i can come home and

stay with you the rest of my days that i have to stay

in this troublesome world  i tel you it wood bea

agreat pleasure to mee to see you one time more  i

receive your kind note of the 28  i was truly glad to

here from you but sorry to here billy has them spels

yiet  i rote a note to you and put apiece in et what

the doctor sed to doo with him  you never told mee

[page 2]

if you gotet the note you got that had the picture in

i never got ancer from  irote you along note the nite

wee got back from newbern  i aint got now ancer

fromet  it was rote 7 of may  ithink irote all about

our trip and fite  you mite of never got et  i rote 3 letters

to your fother  i aint had one from him in more then

a month  hee mite of never got his  i dream last nite of

seeing you  how naturel you was  you rote to mee something

i dont understand  you must tel mee what it is and all a

boutet  you rote you wish i could bea at [home?]  you wood rite

somthing but you was afraid   rite what you pleas and

fasen it up good  if you get this before drew starts you

can send it by him  tom allison got a note yisterday from

his wife  his things hee sent by drew had got home  ihope

you have the things isent  you rite about things in

gineral  i think mary and lydia mite rite to mee

i rote to them and i now [= know] they gotet as i have rote often

to you i aint much to rite this time  you must excuse

my short note  rite to mee any thing you want to  i

will close  ihope to heare from you soon  give my respects

to the friends  receive a ful portion to your Self  houdy

my dear wife  tel mee how the baby is dooing and elen  SHS to ES