Dear Rob.

     I have your letter of various dates July 29th to Aug 22d God bless you dear boy & have you in His keeping — You are in the path of duty — I think I have never loved you so much as now. Not even when as a little totling thing I hushed you to sleep in my arms, or tended and assuaged your childish griefs — You are doing what a man should do standing up for the right & putting your trust in God
     He knows I do not undervalue one of the perils which threaten you, neither the sudden death, nor the lingering disease — And yet from my inmost heart I rejoice & take courage at what you have undertaken — You will be I know God's soldier, doing your duty manfully and with a cheerful heart — Setting a daily example of the Christian cavalier — My eyes are full as I write to you — How I shall long for news — You promise "particulars in my next" — Father writes that your regiment had been ordered to Washington — That your Colonel was a graduate of West Point — Neither of you mention the number of the regiment nor the letter of your company —
     Your letters to Nellie & myself were very cheery and pleasant giving bright pictures of the dear old mountains and of your fishing days — Oh dear boy I wish I had anything so agreeable to write to interest you —
     Henry Youngs wrote me that you had called upon them — (Youngs & Co) for some assistance in funds towards the expenses of raising your regiment which they had granted and that he hoped you might return safely & covered with glory —

The same mail which brought your last letter brought also the "Atlantic" for August with the eloquent article called out by Major Winthrop's death [i.e., Maj. Theodore Winthrop, killed at the Battle of Big Bethel, Virginia, 10 June 1861]. Reading of him & of his earnest hope for our country, at the same time that I learned that you had joined the band of our country's defenders I could but feel more hopeful — While such men are to be found thro'out the land the country must be safe — And right and law will yet prevail —
     The old Romans held it to be the highest virtue not to depair of the Republic — I will try to emulate them and take courage —
     Good bye for today. I will jot down something more for you ere the mail goes out. Lovingly yours O.

Nov^r 8th

     Mail going out today but my work is pretty well along and I may as well as not take a half hour for you — Our rainy season is now about over & we have delightful weather bright cool mornings and lovely star or moon lit nights Mid day is of course always warm here, but we sleep under a shawl at night now.
Since Ned [i.e., Edward D. Edwards, the author's cousin] has come out I have taken up chess again & have a great deal of pleasure in the game I do not think I shall ever be a very scientific player but I find that my power of combination & arrangement grows with practice —
     I shall look very eagerly for every detail of your campaigning experience — I know it will not be easy for you to write a great deal so you must tell Annie to pass her letters from you onto us

I shall want to know the routine of your life — How your cuisine arrangements are carried on — What recreations you have to vary drill & guard duty. I suppose gymnastics are practised pretty extensively — You will have to learn also to fence for I s'pose this has not hitherto been counted among your accomplishments — As a sub. officer I think you have to share your tent with the Lieutenant of your company — Is it not so? I hope you will look well after your own health and as far as your position allows after the health of the men of your company — Next only to discipline in importance is the care to be taken to prevent disease — of course you can do very little in comparison with what lays in the power of your colonel in this respect. Yet that little is worth doing and however active your colonel may be he will need the assistance of his subordinates to carry out his views —
     You won't deem me preachy dear Rob? My whole heart is in the great cause you have undertaken to defend — I think of it continually and from almost every point of view. It seems to me certain that whether this rebellion is crushed or not, whether the Union is restored or a separation agreed to, the "Police of the Nation," as Winthrop calls it, must be kept up on a large scale — Every officer has a wide and expanding field of duty opening before him — Let this be your constant aim to do your duty well in the station in which you happen to be, at the same time that you are fitting yourself to perform duties of a wider range —

You know the French proverb "noblesse oblige" — the men of our race have their obligations to the stock from which they spring — and you are not one to forget them —
     A Straits Extra is just to hand & we get a telegraphic report of the death of Jeff Davis & also that the Federal forces had taken a fort at Chettarah Inlet & made prisoners of the garrison I hope this news may be confirmed — Within five or six days we should receive another mail with dates from London to 26. Sept & from New York to 16. — then we shall know all about it.
     I send this letter to Annie as I do not write especially to her by this mail & she will know how to have letters forwarded to you —
     Good bye dear Rob. — don't get knocked on the head prematurely but fulfill Henry Youngs wish & return.

Very affectionately your brother
Ogden E. Edwards

Robert S. Edwards
Second Lieutenant
Company E.
48th Regiment
New York Volunteers otherwise called Continental Guard
Port Royal
S. C.

Dear Annie,

     Stick down the blanks above for the letter of Rob's company & number of his Regiment as in case the envelope gets destroyed there would still be an address --

O.E.E

I have your letter of 17th Aug — love & thanks