Sunday, the 25th of May, 1862

We are now three miles from Corinth. Everything has been quiet the last two days.

Ever since I came back to the regiment there has been much uneasiness, small skirmishes every day, many have been wounded, a few killed, but none of our regiment have been killed or wounded, although the shots and shells have been screaming around us while we were on picket duty.

Three companies from each regiment are on picket duty all the time.

Our battle line is about fifteen miles long, in a semicircle around the Rebels, with a wall of timber and dirt along the whole line.

The Rebel wall is two miles away. Between us is a small stream which both sides are holding on to, as there is a shortage of water, especially before the rain on Thursday and Friday.

We have plenty of crackers, pork and coffee. Soft bread can sometimes be bought for fifteen to twenty cents for an ordinary five cent loaf. Eggs are thirty to forty cents a dozen. Butter is forty to fifty cents a pound. Whiskey six to eight dollars a gallon. Newspapers ten cents each.

In the papers it says that many in our army are dying, which is not true. Our army has never been healthier at any time than during these last six months. In our company every one is well, especially those you know.

Peder is now helping Jonsen driving the company team.

The 4th and 5th regiment is two miles to the left from here, in the center, a little to the right.

We are waiting for the day when the bloody attack will take place, but I hope the Rebels are soon surrounded.

We have heard their steam-wagon almost every hour until the last three days it has been silent, so I think that our troops have stopped them. If that is the case then they won’t be able to get any provisions.

Each and every soldiers is longing for the war to cease.

None of us have had a letter from Lake Prairie since we came back here again.

We have heard rumors that the man that handles part of our monthly pay has eloped with the money in his pocket, but many stories are told here which are not true. If it is true then Evend will lose fourteen dollars, Peder and I won’t lose anything.

The soldiers here are as numerous as blackbirds in Minnesota in the fall.

It is beautiful timber-land here. The weather is comfortable, warm with cool nights.

The farmers’ houses are all empty, fences are burned, the wheat is headed out but ruined by us and the Rebels.

If a letter to me from Norway should come, read it so if it should get lost that I will hear the most important of same.

The evening we have to go on a twenty-four hour picket duty.