I hope this unholy war may soon end & I can be at home with you to share your joys as well as your troubles. We have once been as happy together as we well could be & I hope we may be happy together again. - William Presley
Lengthy four page letter written in September of 1864 by William Presley of Co. D, 1st Alabama (Confederate) Cavalry chronicling General Wheeler's raid through Tennessee and skirmishes near Franklin. The raid began in early August before Sherman had taken Atlanta and ended in mid-September of 1864. Presley describes not his unit's route from town to town, but their attempts to tear up the railroad lines wherever they encountered them. Presely writes that they eventually arrived at Franklin, Tennessee, where they "had a little fight." Here, Presley reports, "Captain (Whiting) was struck with a spent ball and I had three holes shot through the tail of my coat." 
Presley goes on to recount the death of General John H. Kelly, who "was seriously, if not mortally wounded, and had to be left in the enemy's hands. We then crossed the Harpeth river and struck for the railroad below Columbia, Maury county, Tennessee." Kelly took a bullet in the chest from a Union sharpshooter while leading a charge in the skirmish near Franklin and died the following day at the Harrison House just south of town. At 24, General Kelly was one of the youngest Generals to die during the Civil War.
Much more content regarding Presley's attention to family matters and love for his wife/children. Superb Letter.
[Civil War, Union, Confederate]