Camp 1st Mich E & M Big Harpeth Sep 20th 1863
     Dear Brother
		      It was with great pleasure that I Read
your kind and lively letter of the 5th Inst.; I was very
glad to hear from you and to hear that you were all
well. you will see by the dating of this letter that we
have again changed our place of abode. We are now some
Thirteen miles South West of Nashville, at work on
a Rail Road which runs from Nashville and is to
Strike the Tennessee River above Ft Henry; the road is
new and the track is only laid Twenty Five miles
from Nashville and in that distance there is Six Bridges
to build which the Rebels have burned. the rest of the
road is graded ready to lay the track on. there is between
Forty and Fifty miles to lay, the object of the Government
in repairing this road is to be independant of the Louisville
and Nashville road which gets its back up sometimes
and does not want to carry the mail and firing stores 
when we get this road through the Government will stock
it and run it on its own account, and as it is 
only about half as long as the other road will be much
easier guarded. There is Four Companies here. we started
from Nashville the Seventeenth we then built one Bridge
and are now at the Second which we expect to finish
in about five days; it is about Two Hundred feet long and
Twenty feet high. and we will have to get all the timber

out of the woods. we expect to be on this road all
winter but still we do not know. Two Companies are
at Chatanooga and the remainder are still at Elk River
which is the general headquarters of the Regiment. the
weather here is very fine. the days warm and pleasant
the nights cold and refreshing. last night was the first
[illegible]. this is by far the best part of Tennessee that
we have yet been in and the crops that were planted
this season were first rate. the country through here is
very thinly settled, and the most of the men who lived
here have gone in the "Rebel army" there is a few Negroes and
women left; By the way what has become of John. I have
not heard from him in a long time. I suppose he
is so taken up with his wife that he has forgotten
his Brothers in the Army; well I do not know as
							thy
I blame him; well we are too Proud to Sue for sympa^
a great deal. we are respected and honored members of
our Company and Regiment; and it begins to appear to
me as though they were our only friends. our vocation
is chosen and probably we will stick to it as long as the
war lasts and perhaps longer if we live: now I hope
you will not fail to write as often as you can
as it always  does me good to hear from home [we?]
are both well. and hope you are all the same Give my 
respects to all enquiring friends and consider me
		Ever Yours Alex Campbell, in haste,