#14

Head Quarters 2^nd Brig,e 1^st Div,n

12^th Amb,c Corps Stafford Court House Va.

Apr 20^th 1863

Dear Wife

I take this opportunity to answer your letter dated the 12^th of Apr did not get in season to answer it in the one I wrote yesterday.  it was mailed the 13^th did not get it untill last night the 19^th  it was seven days coming ought to have got it Thursday night went for one Thursday and Friday night,s did not find any for me so I come to the conclusion that you did not write at that time but sunday night it finaly come along was glad to get it and to hear that you ware all well I am well this morning and hope these few lines will find you all the same, it is spring like here this morning warm and showery it is a backward spring here this year they say some month or six weeks later than usual the peach trees are just in the blossom now their are a good many peach trees about here along side of the road whare their used to be houses but farms are minus the houses now the ravages of war have laied them in ashes their is many a good looking farm that I have been over since last fall that is nothing left but the land and trees and in a good many instances the trees are missing as well as the buildings and fences, I tell you what it is war makes sad havoc with a country wharever the army passes through it makes a sorriful looking place of it no matter how well it looked before Now in regard to my turning round from a Democrat to a republican  I claim not to have done any such thing  I am just as good a Democrat now as ever I was but I am not one of that kind of Democrats that would vote for Tom H. Seymour or any one of his stamp if I knew it the reason I advise Jo to vote for Buckinham was this, Seymour and Buckinham ware the two candidates for govenor of Connecticut for the year 1863 and the oath that I took when I was made a freeman compels me to vote for the man that in my judgment is the best for the office and will doe the most for the welfare of our country in sustaining the government. I think that Wm. A. Buckinham is altogether the best man of the two for the place at this time that is why I wrote as I did  if Henry C. Deming of Hartford had been put up on the Democrat party insted of Seymour I would have gone heart and soul for him but I would never vote for Seymour he is to much in favor of letting the south have her own way but enough of this at this time I have wrote anough to let you know how I stand in regard to politics, you want to know what I thought about getting some grave stones for our dearly beloved little Freddy he must have some  I should like to get them myself if I should come home but if that time never comes you can get some for him for I should want something to mark the spot whare such a butiful little fellow as he was lyes. Oh that I could see him once more I will remember how he looked sitting at the table when I left home the little fellow cried I believe little did I think than that he would be called away so soon. I should have sooner thought that he would have lived to shed tears over his fathers death but it was not so to be, tell the children they must all be good children and mind their Mother. If you have any money to spare you may put two dollars into the bank for each of the children then if they earn any money when they get another dollar they can add it to it. My love to you all

From your Husband

A.. Smith

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