Going home!  I have been discharged due to 
the wound I received at the battle of Lookout 
Mt.  It still hurts a bit to walk, but I can 
get around slowly, and that's better than not 
at all.  I'm going to make my way through
Arkansas across the Nations and down through 
North-East Texas until I get home.  I have a 
copy of my release from service and some back 
pay.  The pay is in Confederate currency and 
isn't worth much, but I guess it beats nothing. 
I do have a good pistol I took from a dead Yank 
officer.  It's a .36 cal Colt.  I was able to 
get the full kit from the officer's horse, 
which had also been killed, so I have the powder 
flask, bullet mold, and a couple of hundred 
pistol caps as well as a spare cylinder.

The cold weather hurts my hip, but I'm still 
going to start home.  If I get lucky, perhaps 
I'll be able to get some rides along the way.  
I have to get more clothes to wear.  The winters 
here are cold, and my poor old uniform is pretty 
ragged.  I managed to get a couple of pairs of 
pants from the hospital.  They were clothes from 
some of the patients who no longer had any need 
for them.  I don't have a long coat, but took a 
couple of blankets which I have cut a hole in 
for my head.  I still have the Yankee hat I got
from a battle, and it keeps the rain off.  I 
guess the clothes will have to do. 

I got a letter from Elizabeth.  She says that 
she did what I asked her to do and put in food 
crops this year.  After she had put up all she 
could, she still had a good bit to sell.  The 
government bought all she had to feed the troops,
 so she does have a bit of cash as well as a good 
supply of food to last the winter.  She had not 
received my last letter when she wrote this one, 
so she didn't know at that time I was going to 
come home.

Tomorrow I start for home.