2 2/3 pages, 7 3/4 x 9 3/4, in ink, written by Captain J.L.B. Goodwin, to his sister. Comes with cover address to Miss Mary B. Goodwin, Wytheville, Wythe Co., Virginia, with ID at left edge, F.L.B. Goodwin, Captain, Co. A, 27th Ala., Port Hudson, La. Docket at the top, Recd. Feb. 16. Ans. Feb. 24th/63.

27th Ala. Regt., Port Hudson, La., January 28th, 1863

My dear Mary,

For the first time since leaving Tupelo in July last, I am stationary and run boast of a local habitation and a name and reap the benefit of our postal arrangements imperfect though they be. The receipt of your letter of a recent date afforded me no little pleasure containing as it did the first reliable intelligence which I had received from Virginia for many months. The future is loaded with so much doubt and uncertainty that I am unable to engage in writing with zest and alacrity, and often find it more of a duty than pleasure for amid the multiplicity of rumored events which from time to time serve to tickle the vitiated palate of public credulity, I have almost allowed myself to lapse into the belief that our very existence is almost fancy furtion & figment, and that truth and reality exist only among the things which were and not among the verities of the present, and indeed truth is such a stranger that I have hardly any knowledge of it. My situation at present, temporary though it be, is by far the most pleasant which I have found since I left Ft. Morgan for my time is my own as duty is light. For the first six months my experience has been so varied that I am prepared to enjoy the comparative quiet and monotony of camp life, and it is a source of surprise to myself when I reflect upon what I have under gone that I am on this side of eternity. It is now just one year since the fall of Ft. Henry which was the beginning of our misfortunes in the West, and from that time to the present I had borne all the ills which flesh is heir to, and find myself now a better man physically if not morally than ever before. The Company which I now command left home with 80 men, 25 of that number are off duty forever & many more are victims to disease contracted while in northern prisons. Of my comrades which I left at Donelson, where as some writer has beautifully expressed it, we were outnumbered not out [?]. Nearly one half returned. Our regiment was organized with 900 men and now scarcely one half of that number can be mustered & while very few have failed in battle, many can be numbered with the unknown dead. This place is considered to be very secure and all that combined art & science could do has been done to add to its security. The works here are the best I have ever seen and very little apprehensions are felt for its safety. It is second in importance only to Vicksburg and it is thought that an attack will be made on this place simultaneously with Vicksburg. For my own part I have never thought there would be a gun fired here. Provisions are plenty such as they are, to wit, meal, salt, sugar, molasses & sweet potatoes, pork is 40 cts per pound & flour about the same price. I live mostly on potatoes which are abundant & very fine and ocassionally send out after butter and poultry which are enormously high. The climate here is very well adapted to one of my constitution being as warm as April with an ocassional frost. I live in a log cabin and am so exclusive that I have only one officer in my mess. Indeed I have set to work in my law books just as if grim visaged war had smoothed her wrinkled front. I have learned to accomodate myself to circumstances and make the hope of the future compensate for the deficiency of the present. In the experience of every officer there is more or less trouble. A few days since two of my men deserted who will undoubtedly be shot if apprehended. While in North Alabama I met with a young lady who said she was an acquaintance of yours, Miss Key of Lauderdale. She spoke as if she had formed a very high estimate of your capacity while at the Institute. Excuse this letter written in great haste. I am indeed to take charge of a fatigue party & must close. Love to all. Write often.

Your aff. brother,
F.L.B.G.

I wish you would let Wm. Locker know my address & say I would be pleased to hear from as I have not been honored by him for more than a year.

Light age toning and wear. Very bottom part of the back page of this folio letter sheet has been torn off. This does not affect any of the content. The ID of Captain Goodwin is guaranteed and corroborated by the fully identified envelope. Very well written Confederate officer's letter with excellent content.

The 27th Alabama Infantry was organized in December 1861. Most of the regiment was captured on Feb. 16, 1862, at Fort Donelson, Tenn. After being exchanged in September 1862, they served at Port Hudson, La., later saw action at Champion's Hill and Big Black River Bridge, during the Vicksburg campaign, fought in the trenches at Jackson, Miss., and in the Georgia campaign where they displayed glorious courage at Peachtree Creek, and in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tenn. where again the regiment was cited for gallantry.