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Camp near Brandy Station
Army Northern Va.
Nov 6th 1863
Mrs A. M. Watson
Marianna Fla.
Dear Sister,
Your interesting letter of the 21st
weltime came safely to hand a few days ago through the politous
of Capt. F. M. Farley and I was as glad as usual to hear from
you and at the same time, to learn that you and the other
members of the family swim in the enjoyment of good health.
I hope this may find you still able to go to your meals & to do
justice to them when you go. I am very much pleased to
hear of such a great revival of religion going on in Marianna
and to hear of so many sound conversions and accessions to
the church. It is s of no little pleasure to the soldiers in
the army to receive such good and encouraging news from
his home. May the Lord continue the good work until the last
sinner is converted to Christ and every member of the church
becomes more firmly established in the faith of the Gospel of
Christ. It would certainly ne a great [insert] treat for me to attend a
religious revival and I assure you it would be appreciated
as a feast for my soul. It is true we have been before with
occasional revivals in the army, but are altogether different
in character to such as you speak of. We have very little spreading
in our Brigade at this time, in fact, there is only one chaplain [insert illegible] out
of them in the Brig. and his health is too bad for him to preach
to the soldiers much. The chaplain of our Regt. left us sometime
in March last on a few "days leave" to visit Richmond & has
not returned since. I heard the other day that he had
recently married a lady in Georgia. I think his resigna

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tion was received and accepted a few months ago.
(XHe was not of much force to the Regt. even when he
was here. Two months ago we had entirely too much
marching & now we have none at all. Our Regt being so
small & insignificant I do not think another chaplain
will be assigned to it.X) Soldiers find it a very hard
thing to live true & devoted christians in the Army from
the force of circumstances & mode of living.
If there was ever a time in the history of our country when
the people should be religious in every sense of that of that word
it is certainly at this period. (And when I think of the
great sinfulness of the people composing the Confederacy both
in and out of the Army it is not a great wonder to me
that God does not put a stop to this cruel war which
occasions so much distress in our land. I can't see
very much amendment in the conduct of the people
one to another. I think the depravity of the human heart
is now more plainly exhibited in this struggle for inde-
pendence than upon any other occasion) I do hope
the day is not far distant when we will be far from
the troubles of war and bloodshed and once more
enjoy peace and happiness throughout our whole country.
The idea of an early peace which many persons entertained
the first part of this year has fled from their minds
like the morning dew before the sun and now I believe
there are very few who does not think the war will have
last several years longer. There is no news of any
interest stirring in camp that I know of at this
time. We are still stationed near Brandy Station
within seven miles of Culpeper and I suppose

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waiting
on the slow motives of Genl. Mead to make an
attack. Genl. Lee is ditching and erecting
batteries on this side of the river. The last accounts from
Mead was that his army was in camp about the
vicinity of Warrenton junction, which [insert] is twenty five or
thirty miles from this place. He is still at work on
the Orange & Alexandria rail road which Genl. Lee
destroyed. He has has [sic] laid it [insert] down from Manassas to
Cattles Station. I hardly think he can possibly rebuild
it in time to make an attack on this army before it
will be to [sic] late to do any thing. I think it is his inten
tion to go into winter quarters some when in that country
& thereby prevent this army sending any more troops
to reinforce Genl. Bragg. We had a grand review of
Genl. Stewarts Cavalry yesterday and all of the General
Officers turned out escorted by their staff. It was quite a beautiful sight to see ten or twelve thousand mounted
soldiers, armed & equiped [sic] going through different evo-
lutions under the superintendence of Genls. Lee & Stewart
There were thousands of spectators, ladies & gentlemen in atten
dance. Another scene was witnessed by some of the
soldiers yesterday, of a more serious nature than a
review. It was the execution of two poor unfortunate
deserters in Jones Brigade. They were tied hands & feet
& deliberately shoot [sic] to pieces by a detail of men in the
presence of the Brig. to which they belonged. It must have been a horrible sight but you know such will be the
case as long as the war continues. I have had several
opportunities of seeing the sight, but never have obtained
the consent of my own conscience to see fellow soldiers
die such a horrible death as that.

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I suppose you have heard of the sight this Brig.
was in a few weeks ago at a little place called
Bristow within a short distance of Manassas. We lost [?] about
twenty five killed & wounded in the whole Brig. The St. Col. of
our Regt. was seriously wounded & some ten or twelve[illegible]
him. (X I had heard of the deaths of Mrs. Moore & Mr. Bryan
a few days before your letter was rec'd. & was sorry to hear
it). The health of the Brig. is very good at this time &
all the boys are in fine [struck through] health spirits & I believe they
have given out all hope of getting to Fla. this winter
& think it their fate to stay here as long as the war
last. Maj Clark is in good health & fine spirits this morning
(XMy health is not as good as it has been heretofore.
I was glad to hear from Rebecca through your letter
as I have not such a letter from her since the 18th of Sep.
I hope she enjoyed herself at the Bay and fine fish &
oysters. When you see her give her my respects & tell her
that I am feeling somewhat low spirits in not
hearing from her. I am anxious to come home on
furlough sometime next month but do not know
whether I will succeed in getting one or not.
Dr. Daniel is present & is willing to assist me in
procuring it. Give my respects to your Pa & Ma.
Rit & Donnie [?] and all enquiring friends. Give my
love to Mrs. Charlie Davis & children & tell her I regret
of late her fine [illegible]. X) Write to me & give me all the news
soon. I am Very Respectfully
Yours Truly
Theo West
P. S.
Our Reg't is going on picket this evening
& will not return to camp in two or three days.
T. West