Ipswich, Mass, July 4, 1864.
9 oclock P.M.My Sweet Friends;
Rejoice with me that the "Fourth" is over or nearly so. I sincerely hope that not only the last gun but also the last cracker will soon be fired. I believe if tomorrow was to be such another day, I should be crazy by night. I haven't been really asleep since half past twelve last night, and the day has been anything but agreeable. I am thankful, that this is my last Fourth in Ipswich.
My mind is in a perturbed state any way, aside from the day. Two weeks from tomorrow is the "eventful day, and yet I have no subject for my composition, my peasant waist and sleeves are not touched, and I am ready to fly.
I staid with Lucy Bailey Friday night all day Saturday and Saturday night (our roommates are gone) and we each tried to conjure up a composition but alas, our efforts were unavailing, especially on my part. Lucy wrote a little, but thinks it will not do. She has gone to Boston today to spend the Fourth with Marge Wellington[.] She will not be back for a day or two, as she is going to get her dress made. She has been in the very lowest depths of dispair [sic] the past week, and she has had company I assure you.
Have you noticed by the papers that Lexington Va. is taken by our forces? That, of course, troubles Lucy very much. She is afraid of hearing bad news from her sister's family. She says very little about it though, and but two or three of the girls know the place is taken.
We are not alone in not having our compositions done. They seem to be coming in "only one".
I did hope I should have a letter from home tonight, but I was disappointed.
I have been to Salem since I wrote last. I got me a pair of white kids for 1.85. I had my pictures taken or rather I set five times and had the five proofs sent me last Thursday, and I only wish you could see them. Such looking things! But it wont [sic] cost me anything and I don't care. I shall wait till I get to Portsmouth before I try again. I looked at fans in Salem but couldn't get anything decent for a decent price. I don't know what to do for I shall have to have one of some kind if it is only a palm leaf one. This is a disgusting business at the best, and you may feel thankful you are not in the scrape. Such an ode [?] about presenting an old sheepskin. I shall be glad when I can go home and go to bed, for I expect then to sleep. It is not much use to try to sleep here any more with an unwritten composition and all the other fusses on my mind. Four hours a night is about my average sleep now. I suppose you will think this a dreadful doleful letter, and I suppose it is, but if you had been here last night and today you would write crooked if there was nothing else. The animals in the street are this minute sending their torpedoes up at my windows I would like to shake two or three dozen of these fellows tonight.
In a fit of desperation
LauraI hope to know by my next letter certainly whether you are coming on Emma, and if you are not I shall be more provoked than ever.
I saw Guste last Thursday, when she passed through here on her way to Lynn.
[Without a last name, I thought it might be difficult to identify Laura, but there is a Laura Barnes listed as an alumna in the Ipswich Female Seminary catalog of 1867, and she appears to be the only Laura alumna in the right time period. Lucy Bailey and Margaret Wellington are also listed as alums from classes between 1848 and 1866. On June 12, 1864, Union troops burned down the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.]