495  

                           Co. C. 18th Regt, Wis, Vols 

               Vicksburg Aug 24th 1863 

                                            Dear Lucinda 

        I Recd your letter yesterday dated Aug 5 & 6th 

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

  in Reply. I am as well as usual considering the 

  warm wether  ; we had three days last week of cool 

nice wether but it has turned of hot again. but by the 

middle of Next month the wether will begin to grow 

cooler when it will be mutch more pleasent Soldiering 

down here It is not so healthy here as it was a month ago 

the Diseases are principally Diarrhea; Billious & Typhoid 

fevers; Old Mr Moody and Henry Cleary are quite sick 

at this time; The most of those Lake Superior boys have 

had a Brush of Sickness Since they come to the Regiment 

   I rec;d a letter from Brother William a few days ago 

he wrote that he was well and I Supose he is for he 

Sent me his likeness and it looks as though he was hearty 

I would get my likeness taken and Send it to you and 

one to him but I want to wait until cool wether So  

I will be more fleshy I am a little too lantern [crossed out] [ed] 

Jawed now to take a good portrait now I am not verry 

fat here in this country in warm wether I only weigh 

144 lbs this Summer but as Soon as the wether gets cooler 

I will gain in flesh, You Said that you understood 

that Robert Mc Wrote to his wife that I was going to start 

home on a furlough in two days after he wrote his letter 

your or Somebody Else was laboring under a mistake 

he probably wrote that Tom Decker was going home at that 

time; and Some body probably understood it to be Tom Davis 

And perhaps that is the way the Story started I have not 

applied for a furlough yet and would verry probably not got 

it if I had; if I go home on a furlough at all I Shall 

probably not go until October or November I have never 

written anything to Encourage you to look for me before 

that time if at all And if you had heard as many false 

and groundless Stories as I have Since I have been in the 

Army you would cease to have any confidence in them 

Robert did not write that I was coming home and you 

you Should not [illegible] believe any Report to that affect no 

matter who circulates it; I would be verry glad Indeed to go 

home but I am in hopes of seeing Some Turning point in 

the war in which Even I am in hopes that we will all get 

to go home for good before our Three years is out [crossed out] [I know] 

which would suit me mutch better than a temerary furlough 

I Know that you must Endure a great deal of Suspense 

and anxiety for in your case you hardly feel like a married 

woman or a Single one. In one Sense your Situation is like 

a Girl that had unhapily been Seduced deceived and Deserted 

by a false lover; as you have a Child but no Husband 

But I hope that circumstances may yet Bring 

things out all right yet in future 

  We are still here as we was when I last wrote I think 

we will Stay here until cool wether but it is uncertain 

[illegible] how long we will Remain here at least I dont think 

I will march more than a thousand miles while the	 

wether is as hot as it is now 

                                             [illegible] Thos J Davis 
496 

    E. Caulkins is here he looks hearty he says that some 

of the Battery Boys got a letter from Jabe a day or two 

ago and that Jabe Said that he was about well again 

and would Soon Return to the Battery 

  I have been Speculating a little Since we come into 

Vicksburg I have made over fifty Dollars Since pay day 

If I don't Send any money home till next pay day 

I will have a hundred Dollars to Send home 

I would have Sent Some money home by Thos Decker but I 

was not in Camp when he Started; Some of the Boys 

Just come up from the Landing and say that Thos Decker 

   Had landed but he had not come up to camp yet 

his furlough Expired on the 22nd Inst 

I have no particular news to write to day and there 

is So mutch noise around and I have Some work to 

do So I will bring my Epistle to a close 

I forgot another one of our Co by the  

name of Cox will Start home on a furlough in a day or 

two furloughing goes verry Slow write as Soon 

as convenient 

                           So Good Bye for the present 

                                          [illegible] Thos J. Davis 

                                                       Lucinda M Davis 

                                                                     of North America