25
       Letters from Hannah and Capt. Winchester.
rough and rugged health.     His sickness delays
Mary�s marriage as �he cannot bear to hear of any
change.�    Honest John is a-wooing still.   The Bol-
tons are expecting John Conworth�s arrival, at which
G. Garner is not well-pleased, apprehending that
Sarah Ann may improve the occasion.    If you knew
The Bolton blood as I do, O George Gardner! you
wouldn�t be so eager to mix yours with it.  �Mrs Char
ley and son are at Neithrop; she talks of coming
to see us � I hope not to-day to prevent me finishing
this letter.�   Brother Sam has been to Chacombe,
looking pale from indigestion.   Thus Hannah.   Win-
chester tells the story of his regiment from its joining
Mc Incapacity�s army, just before Fair Oaks, to
Antietam.      It has got badly cut up, almost as
poor remnant of which � about 150 men � passed
through this city, a day or two ago, to recruit its
health vol numbers in its native state.      Thus
I got accidental information of three regiments pre-
sent in that disastrous campaign, with the same dis-
mal result.      What a ghastly total the whole must
be.   The government has not dared to publish it; only
the widows orphans and fathers and mothers know
their share of it.
  16.  Thursday.   Down town in the morning,
a dreary day, soon developing into rain.    Hither
and thither about small purchases.     To Evening