"We are Secessionists, heart and soul.

My father and my brother are with our troops--that is, if they are both alive.

I have little to offer you, for the Yankee bands have been here several times, have driven off our cattle, emptied our barns, and even robbed our hen nests, and taken everything in the house they thought worth carrying away.

But whatever there is, sir, you are heartily welcome to.

I had a paper yesterday--it is not often I get one--and I saw there that three of our officers had escaped from Elmira.