Camp White, January 24, 1864.
Dear Uncle: — The extension of the bounties and postponement of the draft will postpone my visit home a week or two. I shall not leave here probably before the second week in February.
We are all very well. It is very lonesome here now. All the Twenty-third company officers but four or five are at home, half of the men, besides a good many of all other organizations hereabouts. Recruiting seems to be progressing favorably. I trust we shall have stronger and more efficient armies in the field this spring than ever before. I think it likely that the Rebels with their unsparing conscription of young and old will for a time outnumber us again. But a few weeks’ campaigning will send to the rear the old men and boys in vast numbers.
I am growing anxious to see Birch and his mother talks of him constantly.
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
S. Birchard.
