Silas Stepp to Eleanor Stepp

              March 23. Day. 18.64

Dear wife and children i Seat my Self this morn

ing to rite you aline to let you now i am well

i hope this will come safe to hand and find you

all wel  ireceive your kind letter las nite of the

tenth  i was glad to here from you but sorry to

here elen was Sick and sow bad of[f]  ihope She is

better  if i had node it iwood of stayd at home

tel iwood of sead how She would of got  iam

verry uneasy about her  ithink they ort of let

me anoad [= have known] of it before i left  wee have hard times

down here  our ridgment has to picket on aline about

10 miles long at diferent points  wee have had rite Smart

of Snow twice  it has bin raining hailing and snowing

2 days and nites  it stop this morning  iwas on the post

24 hours of it all nite without fire  set on my horse

every 5 and 6 hour of the time and wee get 2

bundles of fodder aday to the hors² and one half galon of  

corn aday  wee get verry little to eat  times is quiet

here but wee are looking every day for the enemy

to advance  it is reported wee will goback to tennesee

ihope is is Sow  Some Say wee will Stay here  iwant to

[page 2]

leave here  idont like this country down here

iwant you to rite onst aweek all the time

if idont  maby iwill get some of them  ilike

to here from home often  this is the first time ihave

herd cence ileft  iant satis fide here and iam sow oneasy

about home  ihave rote to F Fortune  this is 4 letter to       [Fletcher Fortune, his father–in-law]

you  it is freezeing cold here now  apple trees and peach

trees is in bloom here  isaw peas up yisterday in the

Snow  iwood like to see pore little elen but that

cant bea now  iwas on the <???> line 2 weeks  now

i am about 16 or 17 miles below kinston  report here is

Wm P fortune and wm gillam and wm Stepp is all kild

rite if it is Sow  ihope it is false  if wee goto east tennesee

iwill come home  iwant you to take care of your Self

and do the best you can  rite soon  give all the news

iwill rite again in afiew days  rite every week  iwill

close  here is houdy to you and all the children  iremains your

offection husban tel death  S.H. Stepp. to. Eleanor Stepp

here is the way to back your leters

                        S. H. Stepp  kinston  N C

                        6 N C cav in care of capt folk   [Capt. James S. Folk]

^2. for each horse