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February the end, 1864. Dear Cousin, it is with the greatest pleasure that I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well at present and do hope when these few lines come to hand may find you enjoying the same blessing.
We have left Charles Newton behind again, we have left the Sandy
Shores of South Carolina and today finds us in the State of Florida and we are once more in the entire land, it is a new and big thing for the
srovilege of somewhere to go has been a fool to us. We left Foley Island
on the 12th about noon and landed in Jacksonville, Florida, on the 13th
about 8 o'clock in the afternoon and .I was one of the first that's on guard and went on post immediately landing.
The country here reminds to me more at home than any place else I have seen in the south. It is as level as ever I saw, the weather is in growing order, peach and cherry have put forth their bloom, there is a-plenty of hogs and chickens here, the boys are a-faring well and
having plenty of fun.
Charles Newton was well but about the time he left Virginia, some of the boys had the small pox and they said there was a great danger them having it and he was left and until the fact was ascertained that there is no danger, we have been on an expedition.
Last Saturday and Sunday we ventured about 30 miles west on the
Jacksonville at the Gainesville railroad we got a nest of hornets but did
not stay long. We went there like old sober men but when we came back, we came back like gay and well-trained men. When we started, we did not want any orders to close up but never mind, we will get behind them some of these days. The troops are a-moving back toward them again and this time we are a-going to get them before us and then we will show them how to shoot.
No more at present, write again soon to the 55th Massachusetts, John Posey, Company J only. I can not write anymore for I am in a hurry. Mathias Embry, Florida. You need not write to -any certain place,
Only 55th Massachusetts, in care of Captain Williams, not Company D. We have forty miles of the railroad in our possession.
