Dec. 11 we went into the woods and cut timber

Greenland       Dec. 13th 1862

                        Dec. 11 we went in to the woods and cut timber and I went a hunting and I rambled about to see what I could and the first I saw worth noticing was a deer which jumped up about 10 rods ahead of me and I planked a ball plumb into his hip.   Followed him till noon.  Did not get him  I then went to a house where there was an old man and woman and one daughter.  They said they had not seen a union soldier but once before and they were a couple of scouts which were in advance of the union army.  I then come back to camp got my dinner then went to the mountain and gathered some butternuts.   Come back to camp got supper _________  Turned up jack till bedtime   Thus ended the 3rd day from camp Jessie                 Dec 12th  
4 day from camp we went after teams to hall lumber and timber some of which we had to _____________  we went  up and load the teems and some of the boys went to the distillery after _________ which is 6 miles from where we are situated and when they came back they were as drunk as owls and some of the boys got a fiddle and we had a stag dance.  The boys all seemed to enjoy themselves first rate.  One of the boys brought in the horns off from an old buck that he shot.  He sold the carcass and hide for $5.00 so that he made very good business of hunting.  Thus ended the 4 day
Dec 10th.  We went in to the woods and finished getting out of the timber and framed most of it
Run around sawing the old log most of the time
Dec 12th It is Sunday to day but you would not think so if you was here.   There was not men enough left in camp to guard it.   They got wind that there was rebels about and they be at the long salt to ____ men enough to go on a scout and it took all they could _____ to go out.  Then they went out five miles, took 9 prisoners which will have to be sent to camp tomorrow.  There was one Lieutenant among them.  They had been steeling horses and one of the men that they took 2 horses from come on and got ahead of them and gave us warning so that we were laying in ambush for them.  And when the boys made their appearance they had the horse thieves surrounded and they  did not know what to do and while this was going on I was in the woods deer hunting and was out till about dark.  When we come in (for there was six of us) we brought a nice buck in which will dress 140 lbs.  There has been about 25 seen since we come here.  It is a great place for deer if we had a good hour we could kill 3 or 4 a day.  There is a Distillery about 3 miles from hear so we have a few drunk men occasionally.
We got our mail today from the station but I did not get any from you.  It has been two weeks tomorrow since I got one from you but the Lieutenant says that the box has come and someone made themselves more useful than they were welcome and opened it and they sent me one pair of gloves and said that there was 18 prs of them but did not send anything else or say whether there was anything else in it or not.   So I want you to write and state all the articles there was in it giving a full description if everything and if everything is not all rite when I get back to camp somebody will get put through for breaking in to it.  I think that someone got a letter of mine this last week from home.  Please write at what date you sent the box and the letter before and after it if you sent one just before as after and then I can find out about it.
We are having very good times hear at Greenland Gap.  By looking on the map you can see where we are.  We learn tonight that Judd has come back so colonel of our regiment Edward F. James has been Colonel and is liked by all.  He is a young man only 22 years of age from Ogd(?).  My Capt. say that Judd cant be colonel for he will make out charges against him the first chance he gets
We are having very nice and fine weather just at the present time.  In fact we have not had any very bad weather.  Any way a week ago yesterday was a colder day than we had in Albany while I was there.   we also drummed up some new clothes.  We have plenty of clothes now to make us comfortable.  What is the opinion of the people in regard to this war?  I think it is about played out.  I hear it reported that General Burnside is near Richmond and that the gunboats were making their way there as fast as possible that they had got past fort darling (?) How true they are I do not know but my opinion is that there will be no fighting after the first of January.  I read a letter from New York City to night and the opinion there is that the fighting will be done in ___ days.  If so we will be at home about July and that is the general opinion of all the soldiers that I have seen.  Some of our officers say that when we get our pay we shall be payed off for good and sent home but how the thing will turn out we cannot tell.  But I am bound to see the end.  If I live I think that there will be no one at home to spend Christmas from this regiment.  Please answer soon and oblige me.  D.W. Sunderland.

P.S.  I think that this letter is long enough