Co. C 18th Regt; Wis; Vol. 

        Vicksburg Miss July 30th 1863 

                                                   Dear Wife 

I Sit down this morning to write you a few lines to 

let you Know that I am as well as usual I Recd a  

a letter from you yesterday dated the 16th of July; I was 

glad to hear that you was well; I am glad that little Silvie 

is so hearty and Smart I am in hopes She will continue So 

until I get home; from what you Say I think I can 

immagin how She looks Sitting on the floor playing 

and laughing and once in a while crying: but crying is 

natural for all Children; Capt Foster has got Back to his 

Battery; Robert Mc was at the Battery [hole] night Levi Noble 

has been Sick but is getting Smart again they had Just 

Rec,d a letter from Jabez is is at St Louis he wrote that 

he was nearly well again I hope he will not come back 

here until the wether gets cool in the fall 

The talk is that Fosters Battery is going up the River soon 

I Rec,d a letter from Susan Wilson yesterday She said 

the folks was well She Says She thinks I am quite 

a poet though I Supose She wants to flatter her 

new Brother a little I sent some verses to my Brother 

in Kentucky he had some of them printed he sent 

me two of the verses I will send them to you I sent 

you a copy of them Some time ago but you never said 

that you Rec,d them I Rec;d a letter the other day 

from Brother William but it had been a month on 

the Road I am looking for another letter from him soon 

he Said that he was well and in good Spirits; You say 

That Ida Snyder must be a verry affectionate woman 

Or Else deceitful from the letters She writes to you 

I think She is a verry good woman though she may 

be a little deceitful withal I have known her since 

She was a child and She Always thought a great 

deal of me; perhaps that accounts for her being so free 

        with you 
You think that I have rather beat you on writing 

Short letters; well I rather think I did when I 

took a notion to do so you had got into a [illegible] habit 

of writing two or three Sides of a Small Sheet and 

then say you could not think of any news to write 

So I thought I would make you think that I could 

not think of mutch news. though for the past month 

I have written full twice as many letters to you as 

I have Rec,d from you; you say that I have no[crossed out] [t] Child  

to occupy my leisure hours I know I have no child 

but I have many other things Instead I Know 

that a Small child occupies [illegible] mutch of the mothers 

time; but certainly you must have time to write one 

Sheet of pap[hole] a week though as I Said before you 

may have more work to do than I thought you had to 

accomplish and I Say again I dont want you to work 

hard I would rather pay your Board for you can 

afford to do without work as well as those that would 

have you work hard for them; you say you have some 

time now that you could read if you had Some good books 

and say you wish to Send to Milwaukee and get a history 

of the War I have no Objection to it but if I wanted 

a history of the war I would wait [illegible] until the war 

was over and then get a good history of all of it; All good 

Reading is useful and more or less Instructive it would 

be verry advantageous to you to take lessons in grammar 

and Dictionary it will assist you mutch in talking 

writing and Spelling and if you Should neglect it 

a few years longer it will never do you much good for 

people as a general thing do not improve mutch after 

they are twenty three or fur years old; any useful Book 

that you would like to read I have no objection to you 

   buying it; When I get home I think I will let Old 

Mr Hunt understand where he lives; do you keep 

your watch Runing; Well my paper is out and I must 

close Yours Always			               T. J. Davis 

                          To L. M. Davis