Benchmarks

cended in the mouth of a battle, and
pitifully darkness close down upon men
delivering to death, or ruin carrying by
striving their enemies with leeches
& slime. A note just now informs
me that our 6 companies of Engineers for
31 Independent men stationed at the Arsenal
of this City, in asking for their supplies
per the Set Boots are compelled to
sleep on bare loose floors with a simple
blanket and are taking some colds and
coughing fearfully. — my anxiety
presents no way of relief but to bring something
from up there to be filled with money to raise
them from the draft a little. They are far
more exposed than they would be on the ground
under a good tent. — I almost envy your
ladies when so many of your own country ladies
and accomplishments so much—while my poor ladies
are so single handed. The future often looks
dark to me & it seems sometimes that the
souls of women are almost withdrawn from
our present & distracted country and yet—

there is everything to be grateful for and
by no means the least is this strangely mild
winter.

But I must desist and crave pardon for my
(perhaps unpardonably) long letter, for if you have
followed one thus far, and especially at comparatively
as rapid a rate as I have written you must be
weary. I did not intend to say so much
but let my interest be my apology. And with one
more final word in answer to your rational
question I have done, Ladies remember, that the
call for your organized efforts in behalf of our
army, was not from any Commission or Committee
but from Abraham Lincoln & Simon Cameron
And when they no longer need your labors they
will tell you