October 5th, 1861

Today, nothing really exiting happened. I brought home fruits and vegetables from the market after work and came home to cook dinner. I met Emma at home and I helped her with her homework. After we finished dinner late evening, we got a knock at the door. A man came with a hat and a suit on. All he did was hand us a letter and was on his way. We opened the letter and it was from Samuel.

Dear Annabelle and Emma,

I'm sorry I have not written you two lately, I can write at certain times we are told, and when we do they only give us a few minutes before they collect them to be sent to the mail. We can't reveil where we are nor tell anyone where we're located and we have been training entirely too long. But its safe to know that we all are positive we're ready for our next battle. Emma I'm very sorry I missed your birthday. I wish I could have been there, I bet your mother made it a good one though. I will make it up to you whenever I come home. I hope you enjoyed your special day, my little girl. Annabelle, I hope you're holding up with everything going on. I wish I could be with the both of you two, I miss you girls so much. I can't wait until the day I will be sent back home to you two, I love you two very much.

Love, Samuel

Reading Samuels letters comforted us, but made us miss him even more. Knowing we were helpless in this situation and couldn't change what had to happen, made us feel downtrodden.