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Head Quarters, Company A, 129th, Ills. Vols.
Louisville, Ky. Octr. 1st 1862

Dear Mary

I thought I should get my trunk started to-morrow in which I have a note of this date but shall not succeed. I am happy to say my health is quite good. I read a letter from Lou to Allen, reed to-day in which she said you were doing well. It gave me much comfort.¹

I hope I shall hear from you through some one soon & shall be happy when your health will permit you to write. Please take good care of yourself. [I] want to hear of your enjoying good health, & being blooming & happy. Kiss baby for me. Give my love to all & may the Blessings of Heaven forever rest upon you. Strive to be cheerful & happy & trust in God.

Your affect. Husband
J. F. Culver

P.S. I sent my trunk key with Maples. Please get it.²

1. There were two Allens, both farmers, in Company A, Bartlett and Joseph. Twenty-four-year-old Joseph was mustered in as a private in Company A, 129th Illinois, on Sept. 8, 1862, at Pontiac. On Dec. 5, 1863, Joseph was detailed as a clerk in Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau’s Nashville headquarters. He served in the Nashville headquarters throughout the remainder of the war and was discharged there on June 5, 1865. Lou Allen was Joseph Allen’s wife. Compiled Service Records of Union Soldiers, NA. [↩]
2. Edwin R. Maples, the 29-year-old sheriff of Livingston County from 1860 through 1862, had been visiting the regiment, as an employee of Sutler Gagan. He left for Pontiac by railroad on the evening of October 1. Through the South with a Union Soldier, p. 25; Eighth Census, Livingston County, State of Illinois, NA. [↩]