Camp Reynolds, Near Gauley, Virginia, January 4, 1863.
Dear Uncle: —
First of all, my arm gives me no trouble at all ordinarily. Getting on or off
from a horse, and some efforts remind me once in a while that it is not quite
as good as it was. Perhaps it never will be, but it is good enough, and gives
me very little inconvenience.
I am learning some of your experience as to the necessity of
overseeing all work. I find I must be out, or my ditches are out of shape, too
narrow or wide, or some way wrong, and so of roads, houses, etc., etc. We are
making a livable place of it. I put off my own house to the last. Fires are now
burning in it, and I shall occupy it in a day or two. It is a double log cabin,
two rooms, eighteen by twenty each, and the open space under the same roof
sixteen by eighteen; stone fireplaces and chimneys. I have one great advantage
in turning a mudhole into a decent camp. I can have a hundred or two men with
picks, shovels, and scraper, if I want them, or more, so a day's work changes
the looks of things mightily. It is bad enough at any rate, but a great
improvement.
We have rumors of heavy fighting in Tennessee and at
Vicksburg, but not enough to tell what is the result. I hope it will be all
right. I tell Dr. Joe to bring out Lucy if he thinks best, and I will go home
with her.
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
S. BlBCHARD.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 385-6
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