The following letter was written by Pvt. William Smith (1836-1864) of Mecklenburg county who enlisted in April 1862 to serve in Co. K, 56th North Carolina Infantry. William was taken prisoner on 22 May 1863 in the 2nd Battle of Gum Swamp. In this engagement, the 25th NC Regiment and the 56th NC Regiment were surprised and virtually surrounded by five Union regiments at Gum Swamp (Jones County); they were forced to fight their way out or flee into the swamp. More than 160 men of the 56th NC Regiment were captured. William was held at New Bern until he was paroled and eventually returned to his regiment.

In late August, William was sent to a hospital suffering from an illness and he died on 3 October 1864.

William wrote this letter to Margaret C. Dewese (1841-1910) who also lived in Mecklenburg county. She was the daughter of John Allison Dewese (1811-1870) and Mary Ann Sloan (1819-1911).

Transcription

[Camp near Weldon Railroad]
April 3rd [1864]

Dear Miss,

I take my pen in hand to write you a line to let you know how I am getting along. I am well and in fine spirits and I hope these lines will find you enjoying the same great blessing. I thought when I promised to write to you that I would a written before this time. I just thought to write when I see Calvin [Dewese] a writing & thought I would write a line and put in his letter. ¹

I have no news of importance to write at present. The company is generally well. John Sloan was taken to the hospital yesterday. I and several others had the same chance to catch them that he had. We may take them yet but I hope not. We have not fared well ever since we came back to the company in the way of rations. We have nothing to do but drill and I hope that we will never have any fighting to do more than we have had to do so far.

George [Dewese] has been on guard at the bridge ever since Wednesday and I hain’t seen nor heard from him since but he is well or he would a been back to the company. We have a good many April fools. It seems like Christmas to see the boys a carrying on a playing off on one another. Mr. Carrigan gets a letter a most every evening and don’t know where they come from and we have him a running to the quartermaster after a blanket or to draw a pair of shoes and he comes back without any. Then we have the laugh. They hain’t fooled me yet but I expect to ketch one in a letter this week. But if I do, someone will have to look out for a dismule [?].

I will bring my uninteresting letter to a close by requesting a line from your hand. The world is wide and the sea is deep, and I would like to be near a nuff to hear you cheep. Goodbye, — William T. Smith

to Miss Margaret Dewese

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¹ See Letter 14, dated 3 April 1864, by Calvin Dewese to Margaret C. Dewese.