Kentucky, January 27, 1862

We are now camping four miles south of Somerset, near the Cumberland river. We have not had half enough provisions since we came here.

Many thousand men are here and provisions have to be hauled from Lebanon, a distance of about seventy miles.

From now on out of my thirteen dollars monthly wages the paymaster will send you ten, that leaves three dollars a month for me. We must chip together all we can to pay for the farm.

When you write let me know the price of wheat and how much you have to sell.

Write as often as you can, and tell old people to write to their sons.