My birthday.  

Some of my friends celebrated my birthday 
with me this afternoon.  It wasn't much of a 
celebration after marchin all day.  The 1st
Sgt. gave me a pint of Tennessee whiskey he 
bought somewhere.  I don't do much drinking, 
but the eight of us passed the bottle around 
and they toasted my health.

Since we've been on the move with Gen. Johnston, 
there hasn't been much mail able to catch up to 
us.  Rumor has it that the Yankees under Grant 
are on the move after capturing Fort Henry and 
Fort Donaldson on the Tennessee and Cumberland 
rivers in Febuary.  I guess if the Yanks keep 
movin south and we move north, there will be a 
battle some time soon.  Everyone is ready.  We've 
got full ammo pouches, and we're hard as nails.  
I guess it may be our time to give blue-bellies a 
whipping here in the west.  If they stand up and
fight!  We have calvary out scouting for the Yanks 
all the time.  From time to time, they have small 
fights with Yankee scouts, so the armies may be
pretty close together.  Word is that our force is 
40,000 men strong.  We're ready.