April 13, 1862, at Rancocas, New Jersey

Pa is doing much better and is almost his old self.  He has been up and
around and been able to help out for about three weeks.  Soon he'll be able
to do most of the work.

This is good, because I have decided that it is time for me to go.  It is
an obligation that I have to fulfill.  It is a duty I must perform.

I haven't said anything to Pa or Ma yet, but I think they know the time is
drawing near.  Most of the boys, I mean men, my age have already gone. 
With Pa healthy there is no good reason to delay further.

Some have also come home.  Some will never know again the sweet taste or
the cool feel of the waters of the Rancocas Creek.  We learned today that
one of the lost is Corey Fields.  It is a very sad day.  

It was in the Burlington Herald.  There was a battle in some place called
Shiloh, Tennessee, a week ago.  The Union won the day, but the cost was
high.

The casualty list just for the boys, I mean men, from Burlington, Mercer,
Camden, Ocean, and Atlantic Counties, took up near two full pages of the
Herald.  It is hard to understand why Americans are killing Americans.  

Others that came home left parts of themselves to die in unknown fields, on
unknown farms that happened to be in the path of two colliding ways of life
and armies.  The parts left behind were not only physical.  Many of the
people who left are not the people who came back.

It is time for me, as a man, as a patriot, and as someone who believes in
the Union to get involved in the war.  I can no longer allow others to
fight and die in my place.  The time has come.