Transcription from
Parsons book
Letter No. 1
Camp near Tulahoma Tenn. Feby 19th. 1863
Dear "Folks at home" I am now here. We left our picket camp beyond Shelbyville on
Monday morning and came to our old camp 2 miles this side of Shelbyville and staid
Monday night and Tuesday we started here. Got here Wednesday and had to wade
pretty near one third of the way. The roads are horrid, a perfect loblolly. Our wagon
broke down and our tents and bedding has just come in. We have had to do without
for the last two nights, and night before last it rained nearly all night. Notwithstanding
the exposure for the last few days my health is good.
I received a letter day before yesterday which purports to have been sent by Mr.
Lockhart and in which you wrote that you had sent me some eatables. I have not seen
or heard of Mr. Lockhart. and of course have not got the box. The letter was mailed
at Shelbyville. I guess he failed to find me or stopped on the road somewhere and sent
the box and letter by some one else.
Our regiment is now in Woods brigade and I think Claiborne Division and camped
about I mile from Tulahoma. I hope we will be allowed to rest awhile here.
"20th Friday" I am now pretty well fixed up. Built me a chimney yesterday. I trust that
the time is not far distant when we can have our homes together but I do not think it
will do to put too much confidence in the favorable newspaper reports we get. I hope
they are all true. but am afraid to believe them all. Oh! for peace and an honorable
peace. I want to come home and know that I can stay there honorably. I am tired of
war, in fact I never did love it. I believe that absence from home troubles me more than
others. lt always was a better place for me than anywhere else. Now it would be doubly
dear. May God hasten the time when I can be with you all around the family fireside
and where I can hear the prarcle of my little children around my knees .. Yours truly.
/s/ G. W. Cherry
2-11
Cherry Family Civil War Letters
