Lieut Robert S. Edwards
48 Reg^t N. Y. Vols

My dear Rob,

     Fort Pulaski Aug 10 to me & Aug 31 to Nellie are the latest dates we have from you Annie writing on the 21 Oct mentions a letter she had received dated the 1 of that month
     I have felt somewhat uneasy as I had seen reports of the fever at Hilton Head and death of Gen^l Mitchell —
     Little Katy received your kind words of welcome with a baby smile & a grab at my hair a good deal after the style your worship practised long ago when in my little room off the nursery in Clinton Place my attention was divided between reading the Arabian Nights & playing with you — So we go, one of these days I suppose I shall be trotting your first born & telling over the old old tales

which you were never tired of hearing —
     I read with much interest what you write about the black troops — Your idea of two companies to be attached to each regiment would perhaps have this advantage that the men would sooner become drilled and effective by being thus mixed up with others — Yet it seems to be that the discipline for the blacks must be more strict than that for the white soldiers — It would require time to make them effective but I should think that as an army work or transport corps, ambulance corps & hospital service not to speak of bands, cooks et id omne genus of miscellaineous service the blacks might be largely utilized — As they became better disciplined & organised the garrisons of the Forts at the South might be in part at least taken from them —
     We have news via San Frco from New York up to the 6 Nov^r MacClellan reported as moving his troops southward — oh for

good news, we have waited long but it cometh not —
     Have we not a single Cavalry officer? I should judge not by the ease with which Stuart rushes around our forces.
     Well grumbling won't do any good, so I'll try to keep a stiff upper lip — I am not a little anxious lest some of our Wilkes-es should get us into a row with England or Spain — No doubt the farce of neutrality as performed by GB is awfully wrath inciting but actual war would be much more serious — With Jeff Davis in Pennsylvania and John Bull in New York & Maine we should have too much of a good thing —
     Yesterday was your birth day & a week before was Annie's — good luck to you both & many happy returns — I hope that next year at this time we shall each & all have lots of good news to give one another —

Business has been good with us the past year but as the a/cs are not yet all closed I cannot tell exactly how well we have done
     Our house has now quite a homelike look and I enjoy immensely getting away from the office and all thereto appertaining — I can lay off with zest on feast days & Sundays — I do not read much, while Katy is awake she takes up a good many idle half hours and in the evenings we mostly have company —
     Take care of yourself dear Rob. There is not a day in which I do not think of you, my soldier boy filling my place as it were — I know that I have done my duty by staying here and yet I often have to go over the argument with myself It seems hardly right that one who feels so strongly as I do should not give himself to the work — Take a deal of love from Nellie Katy & Yours ever

Ogden E. Edwards