Will Fisher to his mother
Elk River RR, Tennessee
March 6, 1864

Dear Mother,

How time does fly even before I am aware of it. I have already forgotten the date of my last letter, which however, I think is longer than I intended it to be. I have not written so much for two weeks as I did previously, been kind of waiting to get some answers to what I have written. They all owe me letters except Jimmy Sherman, and his I must answer immediately. My last from you was dated Feb. 17th which was very acceptable indeed.
Tonight Mr. Lawrence held his last meeting with us. He goes home tomorrow. I have formed quite an attachment for him, have had two or three very good talks with him. He is acquainted with John and intends going to Princeton on his way home.
He preached today in the Fort, from John Epistle “We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is,” or that verse of which this is the last part & tonight he held a prayer meeting in the hospital. He has preached for us three times & held five prayer meetings. The rest of the time he has been laboring as a chaplain in the hospitals at Tullahoma & as an agent of the C.C. at that place.
You speak in your letter of the inconvenience which you suffer in finding time to write. I assure you I sympathize with you in the great task, with which you are burdened, that of taking care of Aunt Sarah. In the first place, it almost entirely confines you, & secondly she is so helpless that it requires more of you than you ought to do. Poor Aunt Sarah certainly is receiving her share of afflictions in this world. I think of her very often & always wonder if she suffers pain, for I know she must suffer terribly, just from her helplessness.
Lem’s box has arrived in good shape & I have got everything that was marked to me & one thing was marked to me which was not mine, viz: a bottle of honey. It was marked very plainly to me & I took it and devoured about half of it before L. found out the mistake. A letter accompanying the box said it was from Laura to Lem. The mistake probably was in wrapping an Instructor around it bearing my name. I had quite a laugh with L. about after I had eat it half up. I received the soda, diarrhea medicine, envelopes, lots of cakes & a good, big apple the first I have tasted since Bridgeport. The box was a very expensive one, I guess, to Lem & no boots in it either. A hat alone costing over $4.00. He had some very fine shirts the nicest I have seen. The total cost was $32.00 & over.
Enclosed you find my last dollar & would as usual want something viz: a few stamps. Always want something every time I send anything but when I didn’t write much, the stamps you sent were sufficient, but now and all winter I have averaged over a stamp a day. This has been one item of expense. I wish you to understand that I use money very economically now days.
The most that I have bought since I came in the army, although it might not have been actually necessary, yet, it has not been mere foolery and trash to eat. You remember, I bought a watch and paid for it, which, to say the least, take dollars more than I give. Still I don’t wish to do it for it is necessary for me to have one. I believe I spoke in my last letter my having it sent home from Frederick City, Md. when I left it to be repaired. The man wrote that he would send it if I chose to pay the expenses (12/-) to Nashville for he said it would damage it to send it by mail. But as I have no chance to get it from Nashville, I will have it sent to you & you can send it to me by the first opportunity. I think I told you about it in my last letter.
Also other financial matters. Since pay day I have made the following expenditures, viz: for fixing heel of boot 15 ct, for commissary & stuff such as candles &c 55 ct, for tobacco 1.15, for stamps 35 ct, for watch expenditures $2.00, $1.00 enclosed, & 2.20 previous debt, making 7.50 the amount I draw. This I call close figuring. The 2.20 debt was all laid out in papers, stamps, boxes of blacking, tobacco & such things. What think you? I have no money & don’t want any before we will be paid again, which will probably be before the 15 inst. Of my economy, since I came in the army, I feel proud, but my conduct with money to home especially about the bounty money. I feel guilty I forgot to mention the shirts I bought and paid over $7.00 for.
But I must close & will write something more interesting next time. Please spur up some relatives to answer my letters. I am almost dead for a letter, have not had one from no one for a week & I feel very disappointed. I have not heard from Uncle Nat’s folks for months. Julia must write before I will again. Look for a letter in the Post next week from me. Excuse this sheet of paper. Much love to all.

Write soon to your boy,
Will