4th Louisiana Infantry - Captured at Port Hudson

Item CON-8878

Description

1 page, original Civil War Confederate POW letter written in period ink and war dated from Johnson's Island.


Johnson’s Island
Sandusky, Ohio

May 28, 1864

Dear Cousin Lucie,

Your interesting letter of the 12th inst. has reached me. I expected an answer to my previous letter for a long time until yours to Captain Whiteman showed me that I had the mail to blame for not hearing from my cousin. I hope that after this, I will be able to keep up a regular correspondence with you. Old fate shan’t cheat us out of our friendly intercourse, if we are far separated. I often think of you. You know I have a great deal of leisure here to devote hours of thought to my friends. I spend the greatest part of the day on reading. I promenade for hours every afternoon in company with friends. In those walks we often revisit to our friends. And then sometimes, Cousin Lucie, in the quiet hours of night, when we lie on our “bunks”, we dream of there. This is pardonable in the prisoners, is it not? Often in our dreams we are amidst the clatter of arms and the roar of artillery. Then comes in the sweet image of woman to fill our hearts with comfort and smooth life’s rugged pathway. We wake from these dreams to find ourselves prisoners on a lone isle, far removed from the dear appreciations of the past. If my rose bush is blooming, send me a bud in the next.

Write very soon to your affectionate cousin,


A. W. Roberts