Mouth of White River Arkansas Dec the 24th 1864 My Dearest Lizzie yours of Dec the 8th 13th & 14th caime to hand yesterday it found me well & harty as also this leaves me hoping that it may come to hand in due time & find you well you gessd that I was eating super as had eat & was making a fier in my tent on the 8th inst you mist it a long ways for I had just started up White River over the night of the 8th at 7 o clk P.M. I was some 25 milds from the mouth on board the steamer Lockwood & I stopt 45 milds from the mouth at 12 P & stade all night you said that I had converted Posey in to a Lincoln man & he had about converted me in to something else as to that I cannot say for I have a head of my owen you know you said that you was ashamed to direct a letter to him well now let me say rite here that a Capts place is a place of rank & he receives as much pay as a man in a white regt & is as much respected by the goverment & as to the honor there is as much honor in being a Commander of Negroes as to fight with them as beside them & a grate many of them out ranking a white man & I beleave there is as much honor in being a white man in a Negro Regt as there is in being a Negro in a Negro Regt as there is in being a Negro in a White Regt & as to Posey having to stay in the army 3 or 5 years I do not expect you are informed as to that for you must or should know that he is not obliged to stay a day longer than he sees fit to stay he can resign at pleasure if he tenders his resignation unconditional it must be axcepted you should in writing to him rank (Capt) in place of Mr & that proves that the letter is not to a Negro you said you did not have a nice dress to your naim now you know that I do not expect you to go wanting for cloths if they are hie I sent you 35 dollars not long ago which you said you had received now go to McLeansboro or some other hog hole & get you two dresses give nice Calico & charge it to me but pay for them when you get them & if you have not got money anough let me know & mabe I can send you some more by mail & if it is in my power to keep money there to get cloths for you & the children I will do so sirtain but my wages is only 16 dollars a month of corse I can not send money home much faster or more of it but you or my family is my first duty & then my contry next I have 8 months to stay yet & more than that I have no doubt but I have a hard spring campain befour me next spring whether I will com out safe or not I am not abel to tel but I shal put my trust in God but thare is no doubt now but what I have been thinking about trying to serve my country in the next 7 or 8 months to a beter advanteg for which I can be abel to give my family beter suport tho I mout loose frends or be reproved by some of my best frends I can but moan the loss of them & try to do my duty as best I can as to honor I never was very much blesd & of corse would not have to give up much of that as to my family I shal ever bear them in mind & use my utmost exertions to serve them as best I can I beleave I am true to my country & true to my family the later I am sirtain I am true to; the 40 dollars that I have sent home is to make you and the rest of the family comfortable through the winter I would send more if I had it I am your Husband truly Mac you must for my sake (as you say to me) write to Posey & give him your frendship & simpathys for he is in a responsable plase & needs some frends he has don well better than any of his connections remember now that if he gets kild his family will draw 50 dollars a month to live on & if a private dies his family only gets 8 dollars a month his family will receive as much honor from the U States as any tother Federal officer of the same rank My advice is think befour speaking tel Martha that she may go to sea Julia in the spring but she must let Jimey stay with you til I come home you must sea to his having clothes to ware I am yours truly M A Hooker Co A 87 Ills Vols _______________________ Martha was staying with Elizabeth and Julia was his sister in KY Patrick J. Anderson http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=patanderson 9654 Baltimore Avenue, Laurel, Maryland 20723