Charles Roberts to Maggie Roberts (5 March 1865)

              In camps near Sparta Geo
Mch 5th 1865"
My darling,
It is Sunday night and although my opportunity
of writing you is anything but favorable, I cannot feel
satisfied without writing you a few lines. We have been
in camps about an hour and a half and I have had my
dinner or supper, as you may feel disposed to call it and
have taken a good wash and will now say a few words
to my beloved wife. We left [Midway] yesterday about 
11 [o’Clock], passing through Milledgeville and crossing the 
Oconee River and camped ten miles this side of the 
river last night. Today we travelled about sixteen
passing through Sparta, which [is] quite a respectable
town, considering there is no railroad to connect
it with the outer world. The roads are in awful con-
dition and we can’t make over fifteen miles per day.
There is about four hundred wagons along and although 
we are all [harnessed] and ready to move by seven o’clock,
it is nearly nine o’[llock] before we all get [fairly] started.
The four days we were camped at Midway, it rained 
almost incessantly and our camps were ankle deep
in mud and water. It was enough to make to man "
hang himself and if it was not for the pleasant [recollections]
of those sweet loving faces at home, I don’t know 
what the consequence may have been for I was disgusted 
with myself and Everything about me. I am now 
sixty miles from Augusta and if nothing prevent [the
train] will get there about Thursday Evening. I understand
that we are to [continue] our March until we get with 
the army, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 
Charlotte N.C. – I don’t know the Exact distance