of my own dear wife & friends.  Yes, my dearest, you may know that, in my waking hours, no matter how much confusion, & more particularly in the silent watches of the night when out on guard & alone or when lying awake in my little tent, how sweet it is to reflect on past happy times with my precious wife, & friends.  I have no news to write you more than that we are here in a wild, mountainous country with about 3,000 or 4,000 troops, 23 Iowa, 1 Nebraska and 18th Ind., 33 Inf Ill. with 3 or 4 Batteries all ready for the enemy.  The pontoon bridges has been put across Current River to day.  We are putting up Telegraph wires as we go.  We are much discouraged by the news from Burnside's Army.  We feel confidence in our strenghth in the West, but the eastern army appears to be unable to cope with the enemy in the east.  When you write to me, give me your own opinion about the way the war is conducted & what Mr. Nash & Father & Stewart & Austin & Cyr & the opinion of  others. I would be a pleasure to me to know what well informed persons in Iowa think.  I think it is the most pusillanimous war, the greatest humbug of a war & the most rascality, considering the resources & power that we might exert, that probably was ever carried on by any nation.  Now my dear little wife, I would not have you think that as we call it here have my back-bone broken or feel like giving it up.  No never.
