Camp Styles,
St. Simons.
Feb. 15th, 1862
My darling wife,
I hope you will not blame me for not writing you before this, or think I love you any the less for my silence. We have been on the move ever since I came back, and I sent my trunk with all of my paper to B., so you see my excuse for the delay.
I don't know what is in the wind now, but judging from what I see and hear, our head men have come to the conclusion to abandon the project of holding the Islands and will abandon all of them. We have just succeeded in dismounting our last gun, and will send her up to B. this evening. I don't know where the Regiment will be stationed, but the cannon will be sent to Savannah. I am very glad to get rid of them and hope will never see one again, for I am completely worried out lifting them about. You must not get frightened at the news you hear for you will hear a thousand different tales going about, but don't believe any of them for they are all stories. No one even in this Reg., not even Col. Styles can form the least idea what we are moved for or where we are going. Everything in military life is kept a secret. I don't think we will stop at B., I think we will be stationed nearer you.
I wish you would tell Buddy that I have not seen either John or Demps Miller since my return to the Island, that is the reason I have not written him in regard to the sugar cane. Tell Ma I sold her candles at 40 cents per pound and will send her the money by the first opportunity. I could not make any arrangements about your Father's rice [1], as the Reg. is on the move and they don't know whether they will need it or not.
Now darling, I hope you will take good care of my dear little pet wife. You don't know how hard it goes with me to do without your petting. You spoil me too much when I am home. It will take me two or three weeks to learn to do without you. There was a vessel upset the other day trying to run the Blockade; no one was lost.
As long as I am going to move again, I think I will send everything I have (except what I can carry) home. I have been living like a gentleman for the last six months so I think I will soldier it for the next six. I see by the papers they are expecting a big fight at Savannah in a few days. Think a part of the Regiment will be sent there for a while, that is the reason I think we are leaving the Islands. I hope the Col. will let me go with him but I fear he won't unless he takes our Company. You must excuse this short and hastily written letter as I haven't time to write any more. Good bye, my dear wife. Give love to Pa, Ma, Many and all the relatives. Write soon to your dear boy,
Nate.
[1] your Father's rice - Loulie's family owned a number of plantations in Camden County for which rice was the main crop. The Nicholes came from around Beaufort, South Carolina to coastal Georgia. 'Rice, Georgia's first staple crop, was the most important commercial agricultural commodity in the lowcountry from the middle of the eighteenth century until the early twentieth century. Rice arrived in America with European and African migrants as part of the so-called Columbian Exchange of plants, animals, and germs. Over time, profits from the production and sale of the cereal formed the basis of many great fortunes in coastal Georgia. Many Georgians were aware of the profit possibilities associated with the commercial production of rice on slave plantations in South Carolina, and they realized that under a similar institutional framework coastal Georgia had the potential to offer similar opportunities. At the same time—perhaps even earlier—many ambitious South Carolina rice planters came to the same realization and mounted an aggressive campaign to make Georgia safe for rice and slavery, if not for democracy. By mid-century proslavery Georgians and South Carolinians carried the day. In 1750 the ban on slavery in Georgia was repealed, and with the royal takeover of the colony in 1752, conditions finally became favorable for the establishment in Georgia of a plantation colony based on rice and slaves. By the mid-1760s migrant South Carolinians and Georgians alike were operating sizable (and profitable) rice plantations not only along the Savannah River but also along the Ogeechee, the Altamaha, and the Satilla. These four rivers, along with the St. Marys, where rice cultivation developed a bit later, were to constitute the principal "rice rivers" over the course of the entire history of rice cultivation in Georgia.'
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/rice
[2] according to the on-line Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia 1861-1865
Nate's company left St, Simons for Brunswick, Ga. In Jan. 1862 and went to Waynesville, Ga. Arriving there Feb 26, 1862.