Camp Reynolds, Near Gauley Bridge, January 6, 1863.
Dear Mother: — This is a rainy day — the first we have had in a great while. I never saw finer weather than we have had. It has enabled us to finish our log cabins and we are now in most comfortable quarters. It would surprise you to see what tidy and pretty houses the soldiers have built with very little except an axe and the forest to do it with. My house is a double cabin under a roof about sixty feet long by twenty wide with a space between the cabins protected from weather.
I see that the One Hundred and Thirteenth is ordered off, so I suppose Laura is at home again. I shall write to her in reply to her good letter soon. I think not less but more of her since she has made so valuable an addition to the kinship.
I am writing to Dr. Joe to bring Lucy out here, if he thinks well of it. There are three or four officers’ wives in this quarter now. .
Affectionately,
Rutherford.
Mrs. Sophia Hayes.
