Autumn 1862Merrill Corbett, Confederate Cavalryman
Letters to His Brother
Newtonia, Mo.
Sunday, Sept. 28
Dear Brother Robert,
My condition is much improved since my last writing as I can now be confident of having all the ink and paper required to correspond with greater frequency. I still do not trust the Office to get these letters through as I have not yet received the one you wrote on the occasion of my birthday. But at least I shall now have the wherewithal to scribble my lines when circumstance allows, and here, Dear Brother, is the story of this good fortune.
A week before we departed Arkansas, Sergeant Lamar came to me and said that Captain Brown, who is Colonel Keats’ adjutant, wanted to see me.
“He needs a clerk,” Lamar said, “and I recommended you.”
Listen, Robert. Do
