Fayetteville, January 6, 1862.
Dear Mother : — I yesterday received your letter dated Christmas. It was very welcome. I also got a letter from home of one day’s later date. Glad to know you are all well. It is impossible yet to fix the time of my visit home. It may be a month yet. If the weather allows, we are going tomorrow to Raleigh — twenty-five miles further from the steamboat landing, and rendering our communications with home somewhat more precarious. We are now in a region where the resident population is friendly, and we are urged to come to Raleigh by Union citizens for protection. We have established a camp there, and may, perhaps, push our movements further toward the interior. . . . I am busily engaged getting ready to move.
January 7. — It has been snowing steadily for several hours, and all thought of going further is indefinitely postponed. We shall stay in our comfortable quarters until the snow melts, and the floods abate, and the weather again allows the roads to settle. This, very likely, will not be until after my visit home, so I shall not see “Camp Hayes,” as my friend Major Comly has called the post at Raleigh, until after I see some other Hayeses who are in another direction. I suspect I shall get home in between three and four weeks. I know no reason which will prevent my visiting you at Delaware and uncle at Fremont for a day or two each.
Affectionately,
Your Son.
Mrs. Sophia Hayes.
