Virginia February 13^th 1865

My Dearest Friend.

Shall I not trouble
you with a "little letter" this evening.
a short one to correspond with the
size of the sheet of paper. but not
to compare at all with all I might
write. It is too freezing cold to
attempt a long letter with any degree
of surity of being successful, so
perhaps a short one [an'st? ] all pract-
ical purposes. -- In the first
place you know dear, that to-day
has been your "Birthday" & my heart
and thoughts have as ever been with
you, & tonight (tho’ bitter cold to write)
I cannot but prove my remembrance
with a brief letter. I suppose your
mind has been too full of other duties
to give much thought to it being at the

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Congress' 1862 ban on military bands did not eliminate certain bands attached to larger units. As a result, both John and Francis Fuller, though previously discharged, returned to the army at the end of December, 1863. They were both attached to the band of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division of the 2nd Army Corps, where they played for the rest of the war.

In this letter, written more than a year later, John is a hardened veteran. He describes the hut he and his brother have built. Often, Civil War troops had to construct their own housing, since the army had no real facilities for making housing available in combat areas. And although he dreads another hard summer's campaign, he is nonetheless ready for it. He uses his strong religious faith as source of strength.

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