Ward 3 U.S. General Hospital
York, Penn1
October 11th 1864
Dear Mother
Once more I will send you a few lines to tell you how I am getting along for I know you are worrying about me some at least. I am about the same but will tell you how that is. I am very lame and sore across my back and the Cold whether we have had has effected me considerable. I either want to be lying down or set with my back against something, like setting in a Chair tipped against the wall. I went down town yesterday for about an hour and went into a Farm House & got some Bread & sweet Milk. We live well here & my appetite is pretty good most of the time but what I eat dont seem to do me any good. I sent word for some Money which I hope will come soon for I need it. U.S. owes me almost $75 but I dont know when I shall get it. I've sent for my Descriptive List & Letters, to the Regt. I hope I shall hear from some of you soon.
If I could only be transferred to that Readville Hospital I should be thankful; I take things as easy as possible but time hangs on my hands; I should have written Sunday but was shivering all Day: we now have a Stove & the whether is moderating.
Please excuse my writing as I am hardly able to set up long to write today: I feel much better some times & I guess I hadn't ought to gone round so yesterday.
Dont worry about me Mother if you do you ought to see some of the poor Boys at the Front.
Give my Love to F. & tell him I hope to hear from him soon also all the rest & with my Love to you I close — write soon.
Your Aff Son
Henry
P.S.
speaking about my sittings up I cant sit up strait a great while & writing tires me
1 The U. S. General Hospital at York, PA was a sixteen hundred-bed facility, one of a dozen or so of the largest Union facilities during the Civil War. The location/origin of this photograph isn't identified but its depiction of a hospital ward would be typical (photo courtesy of National Museum of Civil War Medicine).