January 30, 1863

Fort Halach, Columbus, Ky. Jan the 30, 1863

Dear Wife- I now sit down to write you A few lines to let you know that

I am well and hope you are the same. I wrote you A letter on the 25

and told you how I was situated in regard to money, we have fine

weather now it is so warm here now that it dont freeze any of A Night.

There is but few s ___ ps here now they have about all gone to Memphis

Ten– the Regulars left last night– there is here yet the 35th Iowa

and us and two comanies of Cavalry and that is all to guard this place.

we have around 250 prisoners to guard and the post besides. we go on

guard about twice A week. i was out on pictrol(?) the night before i

got your letter and a nice time we had too- we was about 50 miles from

camp and we had A good time generally. i was out in the Country all day

and we went to an old s ___ hs house and got our dinner and then came

back to Camp. John Targart got A letter from home about one hour ago

and it said that the old man Targart was dead a so was gorge Smith down

at the Mills(?) there is A good deal of sickness there this winter the

old man very suddenly with his old complaint- Smith with the Measels. Dave

Speer is sick now with a cold. there is A good deal of sickness in

the Regament now at this time with colara(?)

you wanted me to send you that letter from John and i will soon it is

you now i should i but sent it to you but i had not- you wanted me to

come home now but i cant do it now for they wont give a furlough from

the oficers now so i dont know how i can do it now. i expect we will

stay here for a good while yet. i dont know how long, you wanted to

know what i thought of you going to your fathers but i think you had

had better stay where you are from the —-· i want you to write to me and

and let me know how the neighbors are a getting along and all of the

news —-I have not got A letter from your Folks or ‘ mine yet and I dont

know what to make of it. This is my last sheet of paper to write on and

if I cant borrow I dont know what I will do.

i must quit now for it is A getting dark now and supper is ready

— — give my love to all and i remain

yours till Death

John A. Loveless

to his Wife C.M. Loveless and Boy (kiss my boy for me)

John often mentions his and Catherine’s parents.  Upon doing research, I have learned that Catherine and her parents lived somewhere near Seneca Kansas, in what was then the Kansas Territory.  Albert is often mentioned in letters – he is her brother who was 9 years younger.  Apparently, despite the age difference, they were close.  Albert lived with her parents still along with 3 other siblings.  (Her youngest sibling, Edward Franklin Sherman, was only 3 years older than her first born child, Alice Loveless.)  John’s parents are a bit more of a mystery… The only census data that is available is from 1850 when John and Sarah Boyd Loveless lived in Kendal Illinois.  In the 1870 census data, Sarah and Homer Loveless were listed as living in Henderson Illinois but there is no mention of John.  By the 1880 census, Sarah is still living with Homer and his wife and family.

As to the other men that John mentions in his letters, I am still trying to determine who they were.  I have looked through the census pages for the Seneca area for 1860 but the writing is difficult to read to say the least and I have not found any of the men mentioned.  I tag them in each post in hopes that their families who may be looking for information about them find this page in an internet search and are able to read a bit about their lives.

Cholera is a bacterial disease characterized by severe diarrhea and vomiting.  It is easily spread through fecal contamination in food and water.  It results in severe dehydration and death and even now causes over 100,000 deaths a year as of 2010.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera  Considering the lack of training of most of the volunteer soldiers and the extremely difficult living conditions they faced on a daily basis it is of little wonder that diseases such as this spread quickly and killed many.