Letters of Rev. John W. Alvord

When I come back I intend to have a wagon if I can beg it of any body. I want it for carrying my stuff reading matter more abundantly than I can do horseback for little as well as delicacies & comforts for the sick & wounded in these field hospitals in many of which I find great destitution & suffering & also for my shutter and bed when night comes overtakes me.

By the way, within the last two days I have seen both Lewis & Capt Wheeler. They are very well & in good spirits. The former in a pleasant camp on the banks of Warwick river & just putting up his little lodge 4 feet by 8 of logs-- & the latter about the center of the army with whom I look a luxurious dinner of boiled sole leather half & hard tack bread -- very good with a good appetite.

Lewis sent his love to you all . He appears He appears quite as well I think as any of his fellow officers-- Neither of these friends are

house before leaving, & see that all things there are right—so that your mother need not, for the present, feel anxious—Perhaps one of your aunts will go with you, please bring away with you two or three shirts for me, & as many pairs of stockings (summer) with collars—gloves &c—This hot weather I have not enough linen for changes. If any nice fam-ily want to go into the house for the 4 months they can, on the terms of Mr. Tod^s bargain—If not you will have to say to mother that her summering must be cut short, unless we aban-don the house altogether, which may be best, shall be in N. Yk by last of the week & then will see what you have done, & what more there is to be done.

Love to all. Is Lewis at home? I cannot find, nor hear of, him here, having written to him, & enquired for him in vain.

[letterhead] American Tract Society, (Instituted at Boston, in 1814,) NEW-YORK DEPOSITORY, No. 13 BIBLE HOUSE, ASTOR PLACE, N. Y.

WILLIAM A. BOOTH, ESQ., OF NEW-YORK, President. REV. JOHN W. ALVORD, Secretary. JOHN G. BROUGHTON, Depositary.

Communications relating to the operations of the Society, and donations, may be sent to REV. JOHN W. ALVORD. All orders and remittances for the Publications of the Society may be obtained by addressing JOHN G. BROUGHTON.

[in pencil] Beaufort S. C. Augt 4 1865

My Dears

Had arranged to come in the Steamer Spaulding—but she is full to overflowing with Irish Troops & very unpleasant accommodations so that I am advised strongly to wait until Monday or Tuesday when another & much better Steamer sails.

In the mean time I go to Savannah again, & shall see Lewis

Some important business too I can do.

Am quite well—very hot but the cooling fruits of the south keep me in excellent condition

the work when her studies are finished. What do you say?

I am quite in earnest though about our living South. The piney woods through which I have been travelling these two days with their puree water & pitchy fragrance—mild & healthy all the year, I am sure would be the right place for Sammy.

We might have a plantation at about $2.00 per acre. Some of our friends—like Capt James & Col Whittlesey are talking very strongly of locating there as a matter of fortune making. It is the place for Lewis—Tell him to consult with Mr Dibble about the turpentine business where land cov^d with pine can be had with-in 20 miles of the Sea Coast—at two dollars per acre—

The old planters are quite discour-

National "Freedmans' Savings and Trust Company," AMERICAN EXCHANGE BANK BUILDING, No. 87 CEDAR STREET, NEW-YORK, 1865

P.S. 2^d

Could not Samuel go when he is say 10 years old, & live with strangers? I mean those who are known to be good people. Every body says St Pauls is the place for him—Mr & Mrs Markland (Col) had a long talk yesterday with me on the subject—They lived there once, many very remarkable cures, they assured me, had been effected there.

I will pull up stakes & go & live there (finding something to do) if you say so. Or try it for a year or two—

I am not at all sure but that Ann Lane, if you should write her, would be willing to have Sammy, when he is a little older as a boarder—Think of this seriously.

Saw Gen.l Howard about Lewis business but he assured me as I expected, called yesterday on Gen.l Hancock to see if he would do the thing but he was anxious—J. W. A