Lieutenant Killian Kidrickson entered his tent, immediately stripping off his soiled uniform and muddy boots. Both the uniform and the boots went into a basket placed by the flaps of his tent. The camp laundress and her husband would be by to collect them shortly. In the morning his uniform would be returned cleaned and his boots shined.
Clad in his long underwear and socks, he walked over to the desk in one corner and settled wearily onto the chair before it. He ran a hand over his tired face, before reaching to pick up his pen. He dipped the tip into the inkwell and brought the pen up to hover over the blank sheet of stationary as he considered what he wanted to write.
My Dearest Lou,
I hope this letter finds you and our children well. Not a day goes by that I don't miss you all. You are the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and are the last things I think about when I fall asleep at night.
I would have written before now, but we've seen some heavy fighting recently. Three men I was beginning to think of as friends, died in a skirmish with the Yankees yesterday.
I don't know why I was spared. I am just grateful that I was. I hope my luck holds out, so I can return home to you and our children when the war is over. I pray that it will end soon.
I think of our Px family often, especially those of our brothers who are fighting in this God-awful war too. Send my regards along with yours the next time you send a letter. Tell the children that I love them and give them a kiss from me.
All my love,
Kid
He read over the missive and decided he'd send it as it was. He folded the letter, slipped it inside the envelope, then sealed and addressed it. He placed it at the corner of his desk, knowing that the carrier would pick it up sometime the next day and it would be shipped out with the rest of the camp's mail sometime that week.
He rose slowly from his chair and blowing out his lantern, moved over to his cot. He stretched his lithe frame on top of his cot and felt sleep begin to tug at his consciousness. He closed his eyes and smiled when Lou's beautiful face was there to lead into slumber.