New Orleans. La. May 25 1863
Mr & Mrs Z. York
     Dr. Friends.
                     It is with great pain I am in
duty bound to refer your feelings again to the death
of your son Galutia.  When it occurred, the Co
was near Alexandria & I was in Genl Hospital at
Franklin.  I saw him last a few days before his death
when I came down to Brashear City   he greeted me cheer-
fully.  I made the remark that he was looking better than
he had been.  he said he thought he was doing well.
         I told him to take care of himself & make him-
self comfortable as possible.  He was then in camp.
When I came down to Brashear on the removal of the
Hospital at Franklin, I was astonished to learn from
the lips of his Uncle, that Galutia was dead.  From
the symptoms as described to me & the suddeness, I
am led to believe he must have had a disease of the
heart.  I have not been officially notified yet of
his death & cannot say what the Surgeons assign
as the cause of it.

His accounts shall be made out & a statement
sent to you at the earliest moment.  Also I will
send by Express his little articles of interest to you.
    The Regiment is now on the way to the bloody
field of Port Hudson.  I shall join it here & go up.
All our baggage & books are left behind & so
you see I cannot get at the affairs of the boys until
we go to camp again ___
      Galutia was always a good boy.  an in-
telligent, obedient, uncomplaining, welldrilled
Sol-
dier.  & though he never faced the enemy, yet we
know he would have done it had Providence allowed
him to have been with us.  He has fallen, in the
service of his country.  He lies buried in his uniform
he fills a patriot soldiers grave.  & for aught we
know to the contrary.  like a Christian who has well
done his duty.  & finished truly his full tho short
term of life.  he is today awaiting us in a land
where sickness & death are "felt afeared no more"
      His conduct was not at all derogatory
of his early religious training he received from his
mother & we may hope that his hand, instead of
grasping the glittering bayonet, is waving a ___ of
victory - a victory over all foes, all pain, all

changes & chances of time.  Oh! who would
not exchange time for eternity - sickness for
eternal youth & vigor, night for endless day.  Earth
for heaven.  Then, friends, do not mourn -
at least not as those without hope.  Reflect
that your loss great as it is, is infinitely great
in gain to him.  I remember your tears as
you gave him to my charge.  Well, he has left
us all but then, he might have died at home.
     God foresaw his enlistment, his soldier's
life, & his death, all at the time you nursed
him in your arms as a child.  Then do not com-
plain at a Father who is above & beyond you.  his
father - "God gave, & he hath taken away."  "It is the
Lord's will."  "he doeth all things well."  He sees our
whole lives & all the circumstances of life  "work together
for good to them that love him.  But it is not for one
like me to advise you to a course of feeling & thinking which
your own religion will already have suggested to you.
     Adjutant Underhill, Lieuts Searle & Corbin & the whole
Co. desire me to express to you their sympathy with your grief.
And now I close.  with regards to yourself & friends,
I am, Respectfully, Your Son's Friend & Captain
                             Charles E. Tucker.