Macon, Georgia
Oct, 1st 1864
My dearest Wife,
I expect you will be surprised when I tell you that I have been in the Hospital for a week. I have had bilious fever [1] but have stopped it. I am feeling very weak yet, otherwise, very well. I can eat out creation of course. And taking Quinine now. If nothing happens I expect to rejoin my Regiment in three or four days. You must not feel uneasy about me as I am in no danger and improving as fast as could be expected. I had fever four days without and intermission. Am in the Blind School Hospital. I find every thing nice and clean and all the attendance very obliging and clever. We get a plenty to eat
and that very good. I walked up town on yesterday and met Mr. Nightingale; he was the only person I met who I was acquainted with. I am very anxious to get back to my Regiment; I fell like a lost sheep away from the boys, if the Dr. would let me I would not stay here another day. I am the only occupant of a large Room here with six bunks in it. I say only occupant; I mean to say that myself and the bugs [2] are the only occupants of the Room. We have declared war against each other, and have had several severe engagements. They charge me in every imaginable way - sometimes as foragers, sometimes in a heavy skirmish line - but most frequently in solid column. They frequently find salient points in my lines, and break through' but with some quick and some dexterous movements they are driven back with great slaughter and forced to remain quiet until Morpheus puts an end to the conflict. Enough foolishness, I haven't received a letter from you my dearest wife for a month; you can imagine how very anxious I am to hear. Please write me one immediately on the reception of this and direct it to Macon Blind School Hospital. I may not leave here before it arrives and it I do will get Dr. Lee to forward it. Oh my sweet wife you have no idea what a treat a letter from you would be, so please darling write soon. If I get sick again I am going to try and get home - would have done so this time but know it was no use. Give much love to Father, Mother, Sister Lillie, Fanny, Rosa and all the children. Kiss our won little darlings many time for me and keep lots for your dear self. Good bye my own sweet darling my heaven bless you is the prayer of you affect. husband, Nate
[1] Bilious fever was a medical diagnosis often used for any fever that exhibited the symptom of nausea or vomiting in addition to an increase in internal body temperature and strong diarrhea. "Bilious" means the condition was thought to arise from disorders of bile, the two types of which were two of the Four Humours of traditional Galenic medicine in 200 A.D. The term is obsolete and no longer used, but was used by medical practitioners in the 18th and 19th centuries, often cited as a cause on death certificates.[1] President Lincoln's son Willie was said to have died from bilious fever. Modern diagnoses for the same symptoms would include a wide range of conditions and infections. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilious_fever
[2] lice, or bedbugs?
This is the last of the letters between Loulie and Nate. Nate was honorably discharged from service by Col. Duncan L. Clinch on, or about the 15th day of April 1865, at which time he held the rank of Captain of Company C, 4th Georgia Calvary. The end of the war at Appomattox was on April 9, 1865. Sadly, after the war, on February 20, 1866, Nate contracted smallpox from a former member of his company who was passing by White Oak and asked for shelter for the night. He died February 23, 1866, and is buried in the Atkinson family cemetery (now Homeward Cemetery), in Camden County, Georgia, near his and Loulie's families' antebellum plantations. His headstone reads ; 'He fought a good fight.'
