Simon Hadley Letter to Lauretta Hadley 01 September 1864

              Camp near Sandtown Ga Between the Chattaahoochee and Sweetwater Rivers Sept. the 1st '64
Dear Sister
It is with feelings of gratitude and a degree of pleasure that I grasp my pen to answer your kind letter of the 21st which came to hand last night just as I got ready to retire to rest. It was a pleasant night I had been thinking how lonesome and sad you must be at home. I had been longing for a letter all day. O! Sister how glad I was to have my fondest hopes realized to be once more assured that I still lived in your thoughts and that amid all the dangers and hardships I am called to pass through I am followed by the sympathy and thoughts of kind ones at home. Sister little did you think that while you were writing that the Brave soldiers of Gen. Killpatricks command was retreating before the enemy