ENPages
Image 2
Louisville, Ky Sept. 27, 1862
My Dear Wife
Thank the Lord my Love I am free once more and under the protection of the Stars & Stripes. Last Monday I gave myself up to the Fed. Cavalry being left behind: on purpose? About all our marching & adventures I will say nothing, as I have kept a regular diary which I hope you will see seen soon. Two weeks ago Liut. Dunham told me that through his sister you had sent one word that you were all well but that you would leave for the north in a few days. I therefore conclude that you have gone & are now safly with mother in Harvard. After I was captured I went with the Union boys to this place. I got along first rate with them - one of them gave me a new suit of clothes & burnt the others & my both buttons they kept as keepsakes. I forgot to tell you that I was immediatly paroled by Gen. Crittenden & one [illegible] of the Ohio. I believe Gen. Bragg will have pretty hard work to find and exchange me. I am safe & sound thank the Lord - have not had to go into any engagements at all. But how are you getting along - what are you doing & what have you been doing for a living are questions which [illegible line - paper folded over]
Image 3
soon I should be at you side. But I shall have to wait a little. I am completly without money & if I can persuade the Gen. to send me home I shall come soon but if not I shall have to find some work somewhere & earn some - you know Confederate money is of not much use here. I have some of that yet. I do not want you to write to me till after you have got another letter from me as I do not know where I shall be. I have felt like a new man since I have been free. I feel that I am my own again. I have to live to some purpose. I have so much to tell that I hardly know where to begin first. How are all my boys Does Charlie & Bertie want to see their Pa again & how is the baby. What do you call him. I hardly can bear to think of all the suffering you must have endured during my absence? But I trust that now there are better times a coming. I have had to endure considerable trials & privation of both body & spirit but thank the Lord in a measure they are over in a measure. How often I regretted that I ever left you - for the same opportunity I have had to wait nearly seven months - but as I found it providentialy I hope to write to you more cheering in a day or two [illegible line - folded]
Image 4
I write this in expectation that you are in Mass. but if you are yet in St. Augustine - I hardly know what to do. But time will show.
Your loving & ever faithful Husband [signed] J. A. Steinbeck
Dear Mother & Mary Carry & all my friends -
I address these few lines to you hoping that Mira is with you - but if she is yet in Fla. please mail this to her as soon as possible. I hope to be with you soon if it is possible. But if I have to look for work to earn my passage to come home it may be a little while longer. I want to see you all badly. I hope to [illegible line - folded] believe I know by this what I shall do & that is to stay at home.
I hope & trust that you are all well yet. It is a long time since I have heard a word from you.
Yours very affectionately
[signed] John
