In conducting research, I've come across numerous examples of phonetic spelling. After a while, you get use to it and it becomes part of the "charm" of finding some obscure letter or book. Being more fortunate in having a dictionary which I should add that I should avail myself of with greater frequency, I don't sit in judgment of the writer. However, I came across one example of someone who, understandably because of the war, was less generous. I share this tidbit from over a century ago:
"Lieut. Borland sent home to the True Democrat an interesting relic from Fort Henry. It was an 'Arkansas tooth-pick,' being a knife about one foot long, made from an old rasp, and enclosed in a leather sheath, on which was rudely printed the words - 'deth to all ablishners.' I judge from the spelling that the schoolmasters had already been killed off in Arkansas."