We got mail this eavening but as usual I did not get any the last one I got from you was written on the 16 of Jan but I am in hops that I shall get some after a while I have had two letters from Aunt Mariah and one from Elizzabeth There is a rumor in camp that we have to moove tomorrow I suppose to drive the rebs out of this little town up here

The news is here that our wing of Shermans army is in Goldsborough [sp. Goldsboro] I think from the moove of things that they are going to try and lay this force here in front of us and I am in hops they will succeed in doing it so that will save us considerable fuss and a good many lifes in the long run We are haveing a very good time of it so far Gen Couch issued an order on the march here that the first man that was caught in a house was to be shot The boys obeyed the order very well for a day or so untill one morning we was marched into a door yard and stacked arms And some of our Regt went to peeking around

for forage and found a johny hid in the house there was several young ladies fixed up very nice and was all union untill they found him and then their countinences fell and beged our officers to parole him but instead of a parole there was a guard detailed of four men and ordered to load their guns and if he made a moove to get away to shoot him through After all this was over the boys went to see what they could find in the smoke house and there was three of them and our Brig got meet enough to last 2 or 3 days That is the way we servis them with us it is rough we got a lot of strained honey

I will close by requesting you to write soon

Yours as ever
H E Randall