1862 February 21 Fort Grafton

Fort Grafton
February 21st 1862

My darling wifey

I received your sweet letter
this evening and in answer will say in
the first place that while your letters are
very precious and invaluable it is not
worth while to put two stamps on them,
though I am inclined to think that you
put one and Ma put the other.
I am happy to hear that you were the
handsomest lady at Miss Nellie Garrett's
wedding. It is my private opinion that
you are "the most beautiful and loveliest
and cleverest" lady that was ever at any
wedding--but I suppose that I am too
much in love with you to give an
impartial opinion of your merits.
I hope you enjoyed yourself at the wed-
-ding and will enjoy yourself whenever an
occasion offers--it is hard I know to be
separated, but we ought to trust in Prov-
-idence and enjoy ourselves as much as
we may under the circumstances, drawing
great consolation from the fact that we
love each other so dearly.

[page 2]
It is quite late and I must be content
with a short letter--I will probably
write again tomorrow night
I will and do send you messages of
love, but I cant half tell you on
paper how much I do love you
A Kiss, God bless you and then,
my blessing, good night
Your devoted
Husband.

[Howe Peyton Cochran, 1st Virginia Artillery]

MSS 9380