To my dearest wife, Angelica,

 I am deeply sorry for not writing to you earlier. I was increadly sick and had a life-threatening fever. Luckily while I was sick some of my boys from our regime shared their precious water, food, and blankets with me. I am determined to get back home and see your beautiful face once again. Probably the best thing happened to me yesterday. Yesterday, a Confederate soldier gave me an apple. AN APPLE. This may not seem like much to you but to me it meant so much. As much as I wanted to eat it all I evenly divided that sweet ol mama with the rest of the boys to pay them back for all the sacrifices they made to help me stay alive.

Some terrible thing that happened to me while I was sick was that there were maggots all over me and it was disgusting. As well as being nasty it also reminded me that even when we had close to no money before the war, we never lived as bad or as poor as I did while I was sick. I had no food and no warmth. Every night and sometimes during the day maggots and ticks swarmed my body. I managed to stop myself from going insane and keeping my humanity because of the fact that I had you, my amazing and lovely wife in my life. If it was not for you I would not be able to make it through that terrible fever. Even after I was able to get through my fever, one of the only things that helped me keep my humanity was the thought of you and I’m so grateful for that.

I see the war in a new light now. At first I thought that the Confederate needed to be completely destroyed because they’re all terrible people but I’ve realized that a lot of theConfederate soldiers are just people protecting their land and families as well as getting a job to help provide for their families. At first all the fresh fish thought that the Union was going to rescue them, at the beginning I used to think the same but now I’ve started to think that the union is just going to leave us to die in this hell hole. Still I think that I need to fight for the union in order to protect you and our land. Even if I do feel sorry for the other soldier’s family, war is war and the union needs to win.

Love your husband,

 -James Page