I am very lonely.  After Perryville, we 
have returned to Chattanooga.  The folks 
around here have done what they can to 
make Christmas nice for us, but it isn't 
home.  There isn't anything like being 
with your family at Christmas.  I get to 
wanting to be with them so bad it's like 
to kill me. If it wasn't for the men 
depending on me, I'd do like several and 
just disappear after a skirmish.  That 
isn't what an upright man does.  Lord, I
wish I could see Elizabeth and little 
Sidney for just a little while.

We are living in tents and lean-to's.  
It's pretty cold now, but I've been lucky 
enough to bunk with several fellers that 
took over and improved a lean-to.  We even 
have a mud and waddle fireplace.  All in 
all, it isn't too bad.  As an army, we look 
pretty ragged.  I was lucky enough to get 
some boots off a Yank officer who fell near 
me.  He must have had them made special, 
because they are much better footware than 
most of the Yanks have. A lot of the enlisted 
men I've seen had shoes that were falling apart 
after getting wet just one time.  I talked to 
one of the wounded Yankees and asked him about 
it.  He told me they got new shoes just three 
weeks ago, and about half of them were bustin 
open.  Can't say things are too much better 
here. When we do get issues of clothing or 
shoes, they are pretty cheaply made also.  I 
guess there's always someone wanting to make a 
quick dollar at the government's expense by 
selling them trash at top dollar.  Many of the 
men wear a lot of home-spun clothes.  A good 
wide brimmed Yankee calvary hat can be sold or 
traded fer a lot.  You see quite a few of the 
men wearin them.

Leutenant Smith is now Captain Smith.  He's 
still in command of the Company. Sgt. Brown 
has been promoted to Lt. Brown.  We got ten 
replacements the other day.  They weren't even 
from Texas, much less Navasota.  Eight of them
speak funny English.  They came from New Orleans 
when it fell.  Call themselves Acadains and 
speak French among themselves.  They are pretty 
good men, and I think they'll be all right.  The 
other two I don't trust at all. They haven't 
said where they are from, but I do know they are 
conscripts.  I suspect they might be rivermen 
from the Mississippi.  I'll have to keep an eye 
on them to keep them from turning rabbit the first 
chance they get.

Paw and my brother are in Vicksburg.  They even 
managed to get assigned to the same area of the 
defenses.  Both of them are doing fine.  Paw wrote 
me that they are still building up the defenses 
around the city.  I guess the Confederacy means 
to keep that place.  May be the unit will get sent 
south and all of us will be together.  Wouldn't 
that be something!