Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1861-10-04
PLYNoUTH RUN, 4 miles east of Fairfax.
September 9th. 1861.


DEAR MoTHER;--Ifyou knew the position in
! which am placed and how little Of my time
is unoccupied, you would not think strange that
L do not write oftener, we are well--that il the
| Clyde boys-you have undoubtedly heard ere
this that we left New York and arrived safely
in Washington one week ago last Wednesday.
| We were quartered near the Capitol until even
ing before last at 10 O'Clock, when we received
orders that every man should take knapsack,
blanket, overcoat, and provide himself with one
days rations and report himself in ten minutes
ready for march, where, no one, unless il was the
Colonel, knew. In half an hour our regiment
in company with a California regiment, were
marching through the Capital en- route for vir-
ginia. Midnight found us on Virginia soil, and
at o'clock we halted at our present encamp-
ment. For miles we had TO pick our way thro'
hills two abreast, and many times singly. The
morning after our arrival you might, had you
been here, seen 1000 soldiers building their
houses, and in about as many different ways
As for myself and four tent companions, we got
three large poles, placed them Indian styl le then
cut evergreens and placed them top down so as
| to shed rain. When sufficiently covered we tried
to crawl in, and after no small amount of bump
| ing of heads and treading on toes, we concluded
it was lacking in space and down it came, and
we then built another which cannot be beat. 1t
was perfect palace, and so romantic Again
we went in and were having jolly time, when
| down came orders for every man to arm himself
with his musket provide himselfwith ammuni-
| tion and prepare for the worst At the same
| time another regiment were busily employed
in telling trees and pulling down fences TO build
| breast-wOrks to hinder the cavalry ofthe enemy
who were reported to be riding down upon us.
Then came our Colonel who cody gave the or
der, "break ranks, march We left rather dis
appointed at not having brush with the enc
my, but hoping to have that privilege soon we
concluded to retreat to our quarters, and were
snoozng away comfortably, when down came
the sappers and miners and informed US that we
must move our establishment thirty yards to
the rear. There was considerable growing, but
as they were already tearing down our houses
we made virtue of necessity, took our traps
and retreated to the appointed place. We had
nearly finished another shanty, when we were
ordered to pack up and prepare for a march
Did so; pitched our camp one mile to the south
ward; concluded we had built tents enough for
one day; took our blankets and slept under the
cedar bushes; woke up sound on the morning of
the Sth; at o'clock were called out to work on
a battery which is being erected here. Thus
passed the day; at night we built us a tent not
| taking quite so much pains, and retired for the
night. About 10 o'clock the next morning the
the officers came and ordered 20 men to be de-
tailed from each company to cook days ra-
tions. There being enough without us we again
retired; woke up about o'clock and found our
selves covered to the depth of two feet with
| brush. AS you may Judge, we were not in very
good humor and scattered the brush in every
direction and took the sky for covering the
rest of the night. This morning we were or
dered to arms; waited in ranks about five min
utes aud were then ordered to break ranks. We
will leave here to-day, and another thing is
equally certain, there have been very active
movements among our troops lately and we are
expecting fight every hour, and that an i'm
portant one.
have written as we move that you may know
a trife about soldiers life. / write this on
secession paper and pretty well mussed at that;
have wrote about five minutes at time; have
5 two tables, one is my knee the other the ground
Your son, FRANK