Charles Roberts to Maggie Roberts (17 June 1862)

              Camp near Tupelo _ Miss
June 17th, 1862"
My darling wife,)) Mr Manse returns tomorrow morning
and I shall avail myself of the opportunity to send you a
few lines _ it appears to me, my dear, that I write more fre-
quently than I receive letters _ Your last was directed to 
Baldwin - I presume however it is the fault of the mail,
and I certainly am not disposed to find any fault with 
you darling, for I know you will not neglect writing me 
every opportunity _ When I wrote sister Mamie we felt con-
fident that our [army] would not move any further
South, since then I have been informed they are fortifying
Columbus which is about seventy five miles below here
and I should not be surprised if after a while we
fall back to that point ~ Of course, I only give you 
this as I hear it and whatever I write on such 
matters is not official and you must only rely on it 
as camp rumors sometimes right and frequently wrong ~
Within the last day or two we have succeeded in finding 
a very good spring which will give sufficient water
for all our company, it is cool and clean and we Keep
a guard over it all the time to keep others from using
it ~ Many have Succeeded in getting plenty of good