Mouth of White River Ark November the 1st 1864 Mr Dearest Elizabeth After an absence of six days from camp I have returnd & now my first businez is to write you a letter on the 26th of Oct we got on bord the steamer Ballie 4 companys of the 87 & one company of the 1st Kansas Cavalry & started down the river stade one night at the mouth of Ark river & then went down to Gainzes Landing the place whare Madam Suley got shot at we landed there & went out 7 milds in the contry & capturd a picket post of 4 rebles then we returnd we then went down landing & geting out at severl places took a large lot of hogs & beef catel in coming back we got off at Irish Bend & went out 8 milds & capturd 9 prisners & a rebel mail & I had the plesure of retaliating on them for reading my letters on Red river I read one love letter which was a good one she said that she was redy to comply with his requests when an opportunity oferd in a word we had a good time we had plenty of sweet potatoes pork beef chickens & such like take 9 prisners in all 2 mails & never lost a man nor one hurt when I came back I found one letter from you of Oct the 20 and one from Posey he has been on a big scout in virginia he has dride up about Litle Mack & says hurah for Abe & Andy he is going in to a Negro Regt as an offercer so he says but I think he is joking tho he says he has aplide for a commission if he has I do not think he is compitent he wil have to be a beter horseman I think Jo Ashby wrot to me some time ago he is for Abe & Andy he says Kentucky has turnd over for {Abe} Thare is no McLelan & Pemberton men in our Company some of them stil like Litle Mac but cant stand Pemberton & the platform & they wil not stumic the Chicago Convention You say you have plenty of milk & buter & pumpkins if so you live hie wood that I had such good living & I do sometimes for I get in to as old ceseshs dary the other day & I made cream & milk & buter hop well Lizzie after supper I came into my shanty to finish my letter to you I wish you had the pertickulars of our scout but I am not rapt up in scouts enough to tel all about them I do not know what the date of the last letter is that I writ to you but it had 60 cts in it which I sent to you as it was all the money that I had worked for since I had been in the servis it is rainy to night sloly but I am under a good shelter & therefore it does not hurt much Mart is combing his head & Samuel Richardson has come in and is talking with him Oscar is in his shanty writing a letter to his folks & Peter Leak is wating on the Captain he is sick He likt to have died last night he has got another leave of Absence buley for him we landed last night a Boliver Island & Co B & G went on a scout & I went out with my horse on the bank to let him pick some grass & there was 5 others out there & I told them to lets go up the river on a scout of our own they all asented we galoped up the river some 6 milds & met a man coming to the river he was from Alabama & on his way to Arkansas so we stopt him & made him strip & sercht him but he had nothing only a small mail which he was taking over to Ark we put him under arest & made for the boat which we got to at dark we deliverd him to Col Crebs as a prisner of war I think he is of some importance as he grunted mitty & mad out as tho he was sick but he could not fool me as I have sean so many men play off so I amout of paper Yours MAC _________________________ Posey is the nickname of his brother Presley Lafayette Hooker Patrick J. Anderson http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=patanderson 9654 Baltimore Avenue, Laurel, Maryland 20723