Letter to Rachel Walters from John Louderback

May 27, 1865

Captain John S. Louderback assumed the duty of notifying the next of kin about news concerning the men in Company I, 5th Indiana Cavalry. In his letter of May 1864 (museum ID 1991.0291.108), Louderback informed Rachel Walters that her husband David had been taken prisoner at Resaca, Georgia. A year later in this letter to Mrs. Walters, Louderback confirmed that her husband had died in the prisoner of war camp in February 1865: "I think I am Safe in Saying that your Husband D W Walters Died in Reble Prision about the 10th of Febuary I Saw him a bout the 5th he was then unable to help him self I waited on him & gave him as much Comfort as I could untill I was taken down my Self . . . I did not se him Dye my self but I have bin told by Competen Persons that he Died a bout the thime that I have Stated."