With Unit 136, Company H, 26th Infantry Regiment North Carolina

31 Jan 1863 Letter to Frances A V Patterson (sister) 21 December 1863, from camp of 26th Reg't. NC, with Lee's Army of Northern Va. (Battle of Mine Run, VA 11/25/-12/2/1863); Had been sick for 8-10 days, thought he was going to have another "hard spell of sickness" but called it a "bad cold" and said he was recovered. (Precursor of the disease that killed him 4 months later, just before the Battle of The Wilderness?) He'd had much beef and flour bread, yearned for buttermilk & potatoes & asks for Frances to make him a heavy pair of yarn socks, "Perhaps Jas. N. Caddell or some of those that are off will be returning to the Company after a while and you may have a chance of sending them." Then "It is said that we will move to a new camp in a day or two".

William H Patterson