Camp Reynolds, Virginia, March 4, 1863.
Dear Uncle: — Getting on finely. The boys busy and very happy. Webb, I fancy, is a good deal such a boy is [as] Lorenzo was. He is to be seen driving some soldier’s team or riding whenever there is a chance. Lucy will probably leave in a fortnight or so, probably about the time we go to Charleston.
The new conscription law strikes me as a capital measure. I hope it will be judiciously and firmly administered.
I have an offer for my Hamilton property one thousand dollars cash, one thousand dollars in six months, and the balance of fifteen hundred in three equal annual payments. Before the war I would have taken it quickly enough, but I am not sure now but the real estate is best. It pays taxes and about one hundred dollars a year rent. What could I do with the money?
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
S. BIRCHARD.
Camp Reynolds, Virginia, February 24, 1863.
Dear Uncle: — We are all well. Lucy and the boys enjoy camp life and keep healthy. Two of our companies have gone down the river to Charleston preparatory to moving the Twenty-third there. We expect to follow in two or three weeks. We care nothing about the change. It brings us into easier communication with home and has other advantages. We shall possibly remain there the whole spring. If so, after weather settles in May, it will be a pleasant trip for you to visit us if you can spare time.
I have no idea when Lucy will return home. The boys are doing well here.
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
S. BIRCHARD.
February 19. — [Companies] G and B marched to Loup Creek to take steamboat to Charleston; the rest to go soon.
A sort of pike called here salmon, a fine fish, caught at the Falls, weighing from three to ten pounds. A large live minnow is the bait.
February 18, [1863]. — Lucy, Birch, and Webb came up here on the 24th of January. We have had a jolly time together. We have rain and mud in abundance but we manage to ride a little on horseback or in a skiff; to fish a little, etc., etc. I was more than two weeks housed up with left eye bloodshot and inflamed. Birch read “Boy Hunters and Voyageurs,” and Lucy the newspapers.
Camp Reynolds, February 8, 1863.
Dear Uncle: — Your tracts came yesterday and were distributed. They will do instead of sermons today. Lucy and the boys are enjoying it much. They add much to our happiness this bad weather.
I shall go with [the] Twenty-third to Charleston in a few weeks. We are pretty well thinned out — only three old regiments left. Lucy says she thinks the Rebels can’t get her. I am not so sure. She rode outside of the lines four or five miles yesterday.
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
Sunday, [March 29]. — Last night Lieutenant Austin came into camp with thirty-three men and two guns; a ten-pound Parrott and a three-inch Rebel gun captured by Colonel Crook at Lewisburg last summer. Cleared off cold last night; a strong northwest wind all night and today; bitterly cold. No fun in tent life in such weather. Rumors of the fight at Hurricane Bridge represent the Rebels as Jenkins’ men, four hundred to seven hundred strong.
Camp Reynolds, West Virginia, January 25, 1863.
Dear Mother: — Lucy with Birch and Webb arrived here last night safe and sound. We shall enjoy the log-cabin life very much — the boys are especially happy, running about where there is so much new to be seen. … I write merely to relieve anxiety about the new soldiers. — Love to all.
Affectionately,
Rutherford.
Mrs. Sophia Hayes.
Headquarters Outpost.
First Brigade, Second Kanawha Division,
January 20, 1863.
Sir: — I am instructed by General Scammon to inform Major General Jones through you that he regards his sending two flags of truce at the same time by different routes to our outposts upon the same business, viz., the admission of ladies into our lines, as using the flag for a purpose as obvious as it is improper, and that such an abuse of it is not to be permitted.
Not to subject the lady in your charge to hardship, she will be admitted into our lines on the representation of Lieutenant Norvell that she is the wife of a citizen loyal to the United States.
R. B. Hayes,
Colonel Twenty-third Regiment, O. V. I.
Sunday, 18. — Last night the coldest of the winter. Today clear and bright. Rode over to see Captain Simmonds about the Rebel mail supposed to run from Charleston via Lick or Rich Creek above Gauley, across Gauley River to Lewisburg Pike. Walked P. M. on this side up to Gauley with Lieutenant Hastings and Lieutenant (formerly sergeant) Abbott. Both been absent on recruiting service since August 7. Am thinking of the coming of my wife and boys.
Saturday evening, 17. — The two wintriest days yet, yesterday and today. Snowed and blowed yesterday all day. My open shake roof let the snow through in clouds; felt like sitting by my fire with an umbrella over me. Read Victor Hugo’s new book, “Les Miserables.” Good, very.
Kanawha river rose fast — about three feet yesterday, all from the Gauley. New River doesn’t rise until Gauley runs out.
Lieutenant Hastings and some of the new lieutenants, viz.,
Abbott, Seamans, and part of the sergeants, returned today. They tell of strong “Secesh” feeling and talk in Ohio. The blunder at Vicksburg, the wretched discords at the North, and the alarming financial troubles give things a gloomy appearance tonight. But Lucy and the boys are coming! That will be a happiness.
