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CIVIL
WAR LETTERS
Civil War Letters from Capt. Theo. T. Woollens concerning James H. Boyd and Family of Chester County, PA
Newberne (NC)
March 30, 1863
Dear Brother,
I have a little leisure today and will drop you a few lines informing you of my ______.
I have but little news since I last wrote you, it is becoming rather monotonous but at the same time we are having it very easy, I have never had such easy times before, we have rather more sickness in camp than usual, the doctors say this and next month are the most unhealthy we will experience in this climate on account the weather is so changeable.
Frank McDanald, Hiram Dgessup, James H. Boyd and David Spencer are laying sick with yellow jaundice and intermittent fever, Boyd is not very ill and is getting better. The doctors seem to think they will all get well,
my health is yet perfect and I feel as though I could stand any amount of hardship on Southern water and climate.
A part of our brigade shipped yesterday to parts unknown, and we have marching orders and will probably follow them tomorrow.
These reconnaissance’s are quite acceptable for a change and though we are liable at any day to be ordered to cooperate with other forces against _____, Goldsborough, Wilmington, Charlestown or some other place
we do not expect to be taken permanently from this place until we are taken to old Chester County, by the by our time is fast slipping away and almost before you are aware of it we will be home upon you and perhaps
take you by storm, three and a half months more and you may prepare for the attack, for the 175th Pa. Regt. all goes together.
I wrote for some money as soon as you could make it convenient but if you have not sent it before you receive this please first pay to Mrs. James H. Boyd forty dollars and send me the next you have of mine, Boyd has a
large family and is very poor says his family will suffer if they do not get the money from you, Lieutenant Mercer got a check cashed for fifty dollars a few days ago and while it last I will get all I want, I can get a check cashed
here now without it being marked good and when you send me have Pap to give you his check made payable to my order and if the money is not placed in the bank for two weeks after you mail me the check it will be all in time. I expect you are thinking about the morning day after tomorrow I hope the roads will not be very bad nor the weather unfavorable but I am fearful for either as it is here at this time both cold and raining.
Please write me all the news from home, remember me to Pap and Mother and tell Pap I would like to have a letter from him. I am anxious to learn how he succeeded in the mill this winter, how is Wright & _______
getting along and has the new ______ entered in yet, I hear you are to have a new storekeeper, where is William Bye going and what became of those Brown’s place and also of Brother ______ where Joe Dawson
lived. Hoping to hear from you.
Your Soldier Brother
Capt. Theo. T. Woollens
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April 30th, 1863
Hills Point, North Carolina
Dear Brother,
I have been waiting patiently for news from Little Elk, I have not heard from there since the last of March, then I received a few lines from father enclosed in a letter from Ruth, I have written three letters to you in March and the commencement of April but have received no answer to any of them, I was sorry to learn by one of Ruth’s letters you had advanced so much money on my account, but I am happy to add I have since been paid, and have expended the money to Ruth with instructions to her (if no better way was at hand) to deposit the money in West Chester Bank and send you a blank check telling you in the accompanying letter to fill it up to
make us square also to add forty dollars I wanted paid to the family
of James H. Boyd.
I knew you could get the check cashed at Oxford. Ruth wrote father was going to send a check for fifty dollars, I was expecting it everyday when I ______ my pay home and left myself rather bare but will perhaps have
enough to do me if we are paid soon again! I would much like to hear from you and father! If he had no money for me tell him I would like to hear from him and mother and if I am a hundred and more dollars in your debt I
am still just as anxious to hear from you!
I would very much like to know if Lint Stephers has been man enough to pay you and if you have had much trouble with my bills generally! I have received several letters from Ruth written since the first of April one as
late as the 16th. At that time there seems to have been much bad news concerning our welfare floating through the county.
I hope by this time you have______ not to believe all newspaper reports and that you are not uneasy about us. I expect you have heard I was sick with Gutermitt___ fever, I wrote to pap one day when I thought I was
getting better but it seems to me I had a long spell of it, for nearly three weeks I had no appetite nothing tasted natural everything bitter, water I could not bear, it tasted little better than salts, I drank lemonade awhile when it became disagreeable I commenced on coffee and teas, I had table sage and thyme teas and as I got tired of one I choose another the variety holding out till I could drink water again, I am well now only needing time to gain strength and flesh of which I lost considerable, the fever has left me and my appetite has returned to me and I feel I will gain both flesh and
strength rapidly. I flattered myself I was proof against disease but the doctor tells me it is a Malaria going through the air which is about as likely to take hold of the strong as the weak.
I must give a description of our present location and the news in general, I expect you have heard of our departure from Newbern for Little Washington, N.C. that much at least of the many rumors is true, we left
Newbern on the morning of the 23rd April and…… (Last Page Missing)
Thanks to Terry Mossup
Pennsauken, NJ
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