[1]    The letter Goodrich wrote to his sister Augusta and her husband Rev. James Griffing read:

April 9, 1864    Little Rock [Arkansas]

My dear Sister [Augusta] & Brother [James]. I received your letter a few days ago, but I have had no opportunity to answer it until today. One day this week [our brother] James came up on a boat from Pine Bluff. Part of his company was detailed to come up as a guard to some three hundred Confederate prisoners. He got here in the afternoon & hunted me up and stayed with me the afternoon when he returned to the boat as they care to leave early in the morning. He is well & getting along well. He is no longer the cook of the mess. He says that they think they will be sent to Kansas soon & be mustered out of service there. He has no intention of going in again. He says the reason that he has not written home or to you since he has been at Pine Bluff is that he has had no time. But letters will reach him if you direct to him at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, 5th Regt. Kansas Vols.

I have received a letter today from Mr. [Willoughby] Babcock. He wants me to come to New Orleans & try to get a Commission in the Corps d’Afrique. He says the medical examinations are nothing. But it will cost a good deal to go there & then if I am successful, it will be impossible to say whether I can see home again. And I can’t begin to think of going then even with the agreeable prospect of a commission before me, for I am getting very homesick, and would rather go nearer home than farther off. I got another letter from home today. Ma has been sick but was better when the letter was written, which was about one month ago – a long time for letters to come here. I wish there were better mail arrangements.

I was going to say my prospects were getting better, but I think not considering everything. A little more than a month ago, a German [named Epstein] came to town from Pine Bluff. I knew him when out in the army (by the way, he is a capital fellow) & wanted to come & board with me. I took him. [See diary entry of 23 February 1864.]  He pays me twenty-five dollars a month. After he had been here a few weeks he brought his partner [named Rosenberg] in business. They give me fifty dollars a month. Thus far it is good. I am satisfied & I could make a little without much trouble. But a few days ago, a young fellow in Q[uarter] M[aster] Department wanted me to take a mess of Express Riders. He said they were all good boys, &c &c. I consented to that. They were to furnish rations & wood & pay thirty dollars per month. There would be five in the mess. They have been here over a week & I have got heartily tired of the business. It makes my expenses less, but I am getting to look with indifference upon inconveniences when I can make some money.

The servants I have, rather light mulattoes, a mother, daughter, and granddaughter, aged respectively about 50, 23, & 8, are old family servants of Mrs. Adamson, the lady with whom I lived before she died. They are respectable sort of darkies & have taken good care of me when I have been sick, both here & at the old place. And if it had not been for them, I should not be alive now, I believe. What is more, they have taken such a liking to me that they wish to be my servants always. They want me to be their master, not slave master, and if I go north, they want to go too. Live as I do here, it would be a saving business for me. What do you think of it? I am teaching the old woman to read & she can get over the Bible tolerably well. Next time you write, tell me your opinion. Whenever I can get a situation from Mr. Wheeler Bristol for certain, I shall have money enough to go north on. If my boarders remain with me any time & I shall not be compelled to ask assistance from any one. Jim said he would lend me money, but I told him I did not want to borrow for I thought when I did go, I would be able to raise the money. Write soon and believe me as ever your affectionate brother – Ralph L. Goodrich

[2]    It is apparent that sometime between 5 April and 29 April 1864, Goodrich was offered a job working at the theatre.  His “at theatre” diary entries signify his employment there in the evenings.