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Lookout Mountain December 22 1883 Dear Parents. ......Mr. and Mrs. Ryan arrived here this morning to pick up and take the remains of James Heins and three others back to Onondaga. I have just seen Mr. Ryan. He gave me the postage stamps and said that he would take a letter for me, so I will make one out this evening. We have plenty to do since I wrote my last letter. Every man in the regiment has been at work for the past week building a corduroy road to Kelly's ford where we get our supplies. The road is four miles long and was finished last night. We have kept the whole division at work. Before the road it took the teams 2 and 3 days to go to the the ferry and back. We have been drawing 3/4 rations since the last battle. They say the reason is the roads are so bad they couldn't get the rations up from the ferry. Now that we have the new road finished I hope there will be some improvement in that quarter. We have been getting along very well with our shanty, for when the grub bags got empty I went outside of the picket lines to an old grist mill and bought a bushel of wheat. I had it ground so we can live high as usual. Col. Barnum started for Syracuse last Sunday. He carried back the old flag and the four Rebel flags that the regiment captured. I suppose you will get a chance to see them. You can see that the old flag don't look quite like it did when we left. The old flag and the regiment flag have both been riddled by bullets about the same. I havn't heard from Horatio yet. When you sent me his direction you wrote that it was the 20th McClennan Calvary and as I have always supposed it was the 18th I havn't written him as yet. Please let me know in your next letter which it is for certain. If there is anyone coming down here that you could send me another box of camphor ointment and a knife, for I have had the luck to lose the one I had. A box of Humphries cough and diarrhea pills would be appreciated. I think that along with the papers, envelopes and stamps will be all that is needed. The weather has been pleasant for the past few days, but the nights have been very cold. We have no snow as yet. You wanted to know if I received my mittens. You bet , I just got them. Oliver |
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