I overlooked a couple of letter that Patrick Henry Stovall wrote home. It is rather lenghty but here goes.

Vicksburg January 18, 1863

Dear Mother,
i seat myself to drop you a few lines to let you know that I am as well as could be expected at this time hoping these few lines will find you all well and enjoying good health. I hain't got news to write to you at this present time. I can say to you it is getting so I can't enjoy myself in camps well without something to eat. I will tell you what is so. the beef we draw now is poor as you ever saw breed and when you boli it it ain't got no more grees on it than a piece of wood. You don't have any idea how it is andwe don't draw no flour now. We draw meal altogether and it is as coarse as if it was chopped for cows to eat but we draw good syrup and sugar and we make tea sometimes and it has been so wet we hain't drilled none in a long time. We hain't got no tents yet but the mess that I am in dug a hole in a hillside aand covered in with boards and it is beteer than a tent and just warm enough. It snowed here the other day and the biggest flakes fell I ever saw in my life. If I ever get home I can tell you more than I ever did butI am a long ways from home now and thereis some talk of going further. There is some talk of going to Texas but if they start there I am going to come. I won't say where. I would love to be at home to see how you was getting along and so stay with you awhile. I think if I outlive this war I will know how to manage better than I ever did and I won't leave home never again. I will stay at home as long as I live. I have sat down and studied about home and shed a many a tear just to think how I once lived and then see where I am now. Oh, Mother, you don't know half of how it is to leave a good home and where there is plenty to eat and where I could see pleasure all of my life and then have to leave a good home and good Mother and sisters and friends and have to be led in a dangerous place and maybe never more to return to you again. It is almost enought to to break anybody's heart to think about it. Well Mother, I ant you to do aw well as you can and I will do the same. I dream of being at home most ever night and maybe it will be so that I will have the pleasure of meeting you one more time in this world and stay with you till one of the other dies. If old man Carson pays that note I want you to take the money and settle up with Doctor Bridges and if James Carson ain't paid his note tell him to hold ontill I come befoe he settle the note, but Mother, if you need it tell him to pay you and you buy what you need and then when I come home I can live any way. I want you to sell everything I have got there if you need the money bad before you suffer. I never want to hear of you a suffering. I would be glad to see you all the worse than I ever did in all my life. I would not want to see you so bad if I could hear from you. I want you to write to me often as you can if it is ever Sunday. It will keep some of you in practice. It does me lots of good to hear from you. When you write direct your letters to Vicksburg, Mississippi 40th Rig. Ga. Vol. In care of Col. Johnson Barton Brigade. So I must come to a close by saying you must excuse my bad writing and spelling and I will do better the next time and write more and so remember me till I get home or meet you in that world above.

Your affectionate son until death

P.H. Stovall to Mrs. Nancy Stovall

We know he is buried in New Orleans, now if we can just find his brother in law ( my gg grandfather) William Thomas Daniel that served with the 34th

Patrick also in the same letter wrote a little one to his sister.

Dear sister,
I drop you a few lines to let you know that I am well at this time hoping these few lines will find you the same. I write a few lines to you to know hou you and your dear little children is getting along and do the best you can till your husband meets you again. I want to where he is and I want you to write to me whether he was in the Murfreesboro fight or not. When you write to him give him the name of my postoffice and tell him to write to me. If I could get a letter from some of you I would know what to write and I could write a heap more. And Sis, I want you to write to me as soon as you get this letter. Don't waste five minutes and I would be glad to see you and the children. So no More at present. Remain yours truly until death.

P.H. Stovall to Elizabeth Daniel