I was almost drafted two weeks ago, as well, but what's left of the business at Vicksburg, I am taking care of, and I was waived from being drafted by my good friend in charge. My father is getting old, and not only because of his age, but because that he feels for the South, and he is terrified, and outraged with the war, and what it will come to. If you ask me the way I survive, I think it used to be nature more than anything. I do go to church, as I always did in the past, but it doesn't give me the relief I need, yet nature does. After the fall of Vicksburg, of course, I have not much left, except for the Mississippi.
Nothing is left.
Most of us 'indulge' themselves in eating mules and even rats. We are destroyed, ruined, like everything around us, even nature. I am not sure what to do, I need your advice. I am the man in the family now, and I need to save them from this horrifying reality, but I am not sure how. I hope this letter reaches you in time to help us.