Charles Roberts to Maggie Roberts (9 March 1863)

              On picket, Cumberland Presb. Church – 
Mch 9th 1863 )
My very dear wife,
It must be somewhat over a week 
since I last wrote you. A combination of circumstances is
the cause of my tardiness. In the first place for four or
days I was seriously indisposed with an attack of flux
which I was afraid was going to give me considerable 
trouble, but a few strong doses of medicine and a change
of diet succeeded in checking it and last Friday I 
was again fit for duty – You would be astonished at the 
price I paid for a few luxuries, or so considered by a 
soldier, in order to have something different from this
abominable yellow corn meal and [mess] beef. Five doll
for a pound of sugar, one dollar for half a dozen eggs and
other things in proportion. I don’t know when this spirit
of extortion is going to stop; it is not confined to any
particular class or locality – the farmer wants an exorbitant 
price for what he has to sell and the soldier that
is fortunate to [procure] anything that is [in] demand
wants double what he paid for it. As for the [suttlers]
and store keepers that follow an army, they have no
conscience at all."
On Friday, a wet and dismal day, we were aroused
from the usual dull nature of camp by heavy can-
nonading along the whole of our advance lines. Toward
evening we advanced with our two pieces to the front
with the expectation of a sharp skirmish. The enemy