Barrier writes at a moment of respite. His regiment has left Plymouth and marched to Washington, North Carolina and then to Greenville. "I do not know when we will move from this point," he says, because the gunboat they are traveling with has run aground in the Neuse River: "If we can get her off we will move on Newbern; if we cannot get the boat off the expedition will not be made." Barrier finds himself in need of a slave: "I cannot get one that will do to depend on. I have tried a couple of free boys but find they will not do to trust." He wants his father to send him Elias, one of the family's slaves; he says he will pay "almost any price" for him, and that he will buy him outright if he cannot hire him temporarily.