Lieut R. S. Edwards
48. Reg^t N. Y. S. Volunteers

My dear Robin

     I have a whole package of your ever welcome missives one to Annie, one to Nellie & one for myself with dates up to the 4th Jan^y.
     You had been under fire for the first time & I suppose I shall echo your own wish in hoping it may not be the last.
     Your mention of the picket duty & accounts of the slaves are very interesting — I cannot & will not believe that your Ceasar or any other man who had come into our lines in South Carolina is to be given up to slavery again —
Baship in from San Frco last week we had news from New York in 42 days, dates up by telegraph to the 12th Feb^y & telling us of the complete success

of the Burnside expedition, taking of Roanoke Island &c and better even than this giving an account of the Gunboats on the Tennessee river having gone up to Florence in alabama & having been welcomed by the Union men there most heartily. I really think our cause seems to move at last may God prosper it —
     But to go back to your good letters you cannot think how much pleasure they give not only to Nellie & to me, but to Ned and to Geo Peirce also [i.e., George Henry Peirce, of Peele, Hubbell, & Co.] — You have quite a talent for letter writing dear Rob. & I am glad

to see that you do not let it pass from you by disuse —
     Perhaps you would like some account of our present residence — The house is not unlike (as to its exterior) to some sketches I have seen of Italian villas The ground floor is only used as a carriage house & for store rooms — In the house itself you ascend by a wide and easy flight of steps and enter thro' a deep porch — The rooms are very lofty and quite too large for the small amount of furniture we have brought with us — At the back of the house for a hundred & more yards extends what was once a fine garden but which is now, thro' neglect, a wilderness but still very attractive in its picturesque growth of flowering shrubs & trees

all day long are wafted into us sweet perfumes and the fresh pure air seems ever giving strength and comfort.
     As yet our household is hardly settled when I have things more to my mind I will tell you how we have it arranged — I shall go in to town (15. mins drive) every morning about eight and get back here before four usually —
     Nellie is enchanted with the beauty of the place, with the quiet & flowers & air. I trust that both she and the expected one may be very much benefitted by the change —
An Am steamer the "Pembroke" with some friends on board from Boston has put in here today and I am expecting quite a party & must say good bye for today

lovingly yrs
Ogden