(No 53)
  Camp of 23rd Iowa Inft Brownsville Ark.  Nov 29th /64  
My Dear Wife:  Since writing on the 25th I have recd yours of Nov 4th.  It does me good to receive your cheerful & loving letters.  The warm hearted sentiment pervading all your letters is cheering to me in my loneliess & buoys me up to duty, O' how could I cheerfully bear up under all my arduous duties, amid privation, & at times in poor health were it not that I know that in the breast of my precious wife beats a fond heart ever true to me.  One who "would gladly share my hardships", But my own dear wife you cannot share them with me now only in your sympathy,  This is enough only let me know that I have your sympathy & I am happy, in contemplating the bright future that hope points to.  Now I would not have think me homesick, or that I brood over my fate in being kept so long absent from those I hold so dear, but I cannot help thinking almost constantly - of home & home scenes & our prospects in future, As you remark in your last "I long O' so much for a home" & if I were to follow my inclination I would write of nothing else, & I feel as if I could harangue on the subject every day, I find myself often when on a march or in going about the country, passing a cottage or dwelling of any kind especially if the surroundings are neat & in taste, after passing such a place my mind becomes absorbed in speculation as to the way we will have our cottage surrounded by shrubery & all that is beautiful.  O' I get up fine pictures, I wonder if we will realize them?
