Scope and Contents

Received a letter from her; receuived Rutson's "Saddle bags" and read through all the material; made arrangements for meeting Brau[?] at the school of mining; they are thinking of going to housekeeping; since Rutson does not want to mention it, the accompanying notice [not present] about his Blessed Davy Jones [his son, Johnny] probably escaped his notice;  it is taken from the Mobile[?]; asks who the men are [who are mentioned in the article?]; the story seems true to him [?]; some of the Army correspondents said at the time [of his son's disappearance] that he was shot as a spy; did not pay attention to that statement because it said he  was caught lurking behind enemy lines, since they know he was captured on his own side; disagreed with Dabney, who said he died of sickness on a river boat; knows that he died soon after he was captured, since otherwise his name and connections would have made him a prisoner known to some of the high officials; the party that captured him came over [?], and without Grant's knowledge; not many people in the large army knew he had been captured; the story of his beeing lawlessly [?] shot the evening of this capture and before he had time to make himself known to his superiors fits in with the details they know; is sure that he was captured and taken across the river; if he was shot right awayy, it explains why they heard nothing more about him; asks her to ask Rutson to send the note to Dabney and authorize Dabney to advertize in the Vicksburg and [?] papers. 4pp. ALS