Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1861-08-16

on account of the originality of its state
ments:
ALEXANDRIA Va, July Sd, 1861.
DEAR Cousin Il received your letter
last night about 8 o'clock, and was glad
to hear from you and the rest of the
friends. will first answer your ques-
tions, Co.. II went into battle with the I'd
Lieut., Chester X. Leach the only off,
Ger that was not coward. Our lst Lieut.,
(Jerome B. Chase,) was Sun-struck, and
before we got there our Captain, (Wm. I.
Burnham,) had the belly ache. Before
we got within miles of the field, we had
orders to break into platoons, and he
heard the cannon, and it frightened him
so that he could not speak but we went
through. We gave it to the towards.
| will tell you how VIC went into the field
We are now camped 5 miles west of AL
exandria we started from here the 10TH
and marched to Fairfax. There were
1000 rebels there. We took them by
surprise and they ran, leaving their tents
and provisions. We marched that nj ht
till o'clock in the morning, then formed
into line of battle, and laid down till 6
o'clock, we then started for Centreville.
All we had to eat was some -four which
we took from the secessionists. This
wet up with water, and baked on the ashes
without salt or salaratus, was pretty fresh.
We marched that night till 2 o'clock, and
then camped 1t began to rain and rain
ed till morning. and all the shelter that
we had was our blankets. and consequent
ly we got very wet. We started in the
morning about 4 o'clock, and camped in
Centreville about 10 o'clock. All we had
to eat until the Goth was pilot bread and
fresh meat, without salt. We campcd
out in the open air from the 10Th till the
22d. We left Centreville the Dist for
the field Of battle at Bulls Run ID miles
distant. We started at o'clock in the
morning. and got there about | o'clock in
the afternoon. We were marched miles
on double quick, which very much ex-
hausted us, but excitement kept us up.
We had no field officers except the Major; ;
our Col. having hid behind tree and
stayed there until we had orders to retreat
and then he run like the ID. | believe
he is from Michigan, and his name is
Henery Whitney. Our Brigadier General
said that he was disgrace to the Regt
We had the name of being the first Regt.
on the field. We were drawn from the
brigade as Capitol Guards, but our Col.
got us back into the brigade by telling
the General the we were the Vermont
roughs, and that we should get drunk;
but that is not so there being but few
in the Regt. that drink at all. The rea-
son was because he was ashamed of him
self. They have got his likeness, stand
ing behind tree. wish we had YER
mon Col. and | believe We should fare
better. There is not much use of begin
ming to tell what saw that day, for
have not got paper enough to write it on
but we got defeated and had to retreat.
We marched 60 miles without rest or
Sleep We retreated back to Centreville
the most of the way on double quick time,
and from Centreville to Alexandria, which
was so miles, the most of us blistering
our feet very badly. You had ought to
have seen us hobbling round the next
day. We stayed in Alexandria till Thurs
day, and then marched back to our old
camp. where we now are. There are 50,-
900 rebels within miles of us. We
have just begun to fortify ourselves. We
have got 2 batteries near Us, besides there
is company of 100 cavalry in the ad-
vance. We are about 2 miles in advance
of Fort Ellsworth. That is large fort,
built by Ellsworth's Zouaves, and has
100 large cannon. l was up there the
other day, and saw three guns which |
could crawl into. They are l6 #. long,
and throw she'll that weigh $50 lbs. |
saw few she'll thrown, on the 2lst, some
coming pretty near 8 or Of our boys