Marine Hospital, New Orleans, La. April 18th, 1865 Dear Father: I arrived at this hospital last Sunday after a weary ride on a boat and railroad. I was nearly played out or at least felt so when I arrived here, but since I arrived I have received such good care that I feel like a new man. Think the Doctor will allow me to run around in a day or two on crutches. My leg gives me little or no pain now. It is doing finely. Think I shall be able to start for home soon on a sixty day furlough. What do you say to that? We have just received the news that General Lee has surrendered his forces to the old hero Gen. Grant. If this be true I think many a soldier will visit loved ones at home with the satisfaction that his duty is done in his country's noble cause. Oh! What a happy day awaits the soldier and his friends at no great distance either. Everything looks bright. Wherever our army had moved this spring success has followed them, although many brave men have fallen, yet it is in a noble cause. Thank God that it is no worse than it i. You no doubt have learned before this point that Spanish Fort and Blakely are ours as well as Mobile. In fact the whole Confederacy is as good as ours. Thank God for the bright prospects of peace. It will not be long before I shall be able to help fit up our new home in Iowa. I believe I can work just as well as I could before enlisting. I hear some say they will never work for a living after the war, but I have no such mind. The doctors are furloughing men continuously just as many as ask. Don't think I shall try to get one for a month yet. Do you think I had better take my discharge yet? I probably will not get so that I can do much before my time is out. I can just as well draw pay until then as not. Please Father send me some stamps. I would also like a little money. We have not been paid in a long time, ten months pay due us the last of this month. I need to get my washing done and a few other knickknacks. Now you must write as soon as you get this. Remember me kindly to all. Kiss the children for me. Now write soon to Lewis Bloodgood Direct Marine Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana (Co. E 28th Wis. Vo.)