The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1861-08-02
THE UNION &c J0URNAL X


our retreat was cut of by the enemy, who
fred upon US from masked battery but
their shot did not take effect and there being
a piece Of woods near by we went into them,
and came to the conclusion we would camp
for the night. threw of my blanket about
one mile from the battle field, and when
returned found II in the same place, and as
we all had blankets we had very comfort
able nights rest. Invoke up at4 O'Clock and
found il was raining very hard, / woke up
the rest and as we did not have any toilet to
make, we were soon on march to find our
way out of the woods, and after rowing
round to clear their guards and battery, we
came to halt and held council. and came to
the conclusion to send out scout to learn
IL We could where we were. Lieut.. Pilsbury
and myself being decided upon we started,
and went about ono mile and seeing man
in the distance | left my gun with Lieut.. and
drew my trusty acknowledgements him,
he proved to be Slave, but was as bright as
any white man that have ever seen asked
him il he would show us the main road that
led to Centreville, he consented to do 50, and
we went back where the rest Of our little
company were, and our guide came wi thin
one mile Of Centrcville with us and after u
"God bless you" he left US. After we got to
the village we went into q house and got some
hot coffee which did us much good, altho'
we had hard bread with us yet We had no
appetite for it. think il could have been
seated at some Of your tables in good old
Biddeford could have done justice to any
amount Of eatables.
We now found that all of our troops had
gone to Fairfax Court House. distance oil
seven miles, 80 we again started. From this
place there was many on the road, some were
wounded, and some were frightened. lsaw
one of the n. Y. Fire Zouaves that wa,
wounded three times, once in his hip, once
in his other leg, the ball passed quite through
and one of his arms was badly wounded, ant
yet he had walked l6 miles and said he
should 90 to Alexandria, but he had the good
luck to &C.! ride; | have seen him since and he
is getting along we'll. We arrived at Fairfax
in good spirits; but when we learned that our
troops had gone to Alexandria it rather dis
couraged me, but we concluded to push on.
Here at this place there was any amount oil
baggage all broken open, and the natives
were helping themselves. We now had a
journey OF Ii miles before us, and after a
little rest we started. We saw nothing on
our journey that was ofmuch interest, about
G clock We arrived here after a march OF
% miles. 1t raincd all through the day and
we got almost as wet as we could be. lcamC
to the conclusion if there was feather bed
in this town would sleep on one. Lieut..
Stevens being very foot sore, he and | left the
rest and went along together, and when We
came to house that we liked the looks Of
we stopped and raped, and soon found that
we had made the acquaintance of q mulattC
family Of respectability. they gave us per-
mission to stop with them, and the free use
of anything that we wanted. We got tub
of water, soap and towel, and after We got
through they had supperall really, their sup
per consisted of corn cake, biscuit, boiled eggs
and hot coffee. And il ever felt good il
was after got through with that neal
Lieut.. Pilsbury and Major Hamilton found us
and we hada fine time with them. Ii still
continued to rain, but we did not mind that
now as we had got dry, and about ten VIC
retired and better nights rest never cxpcc,
to have, and this morning asI write you in
our little room the sun shines in and makes
me think Of days. that ! have spent in room
much like this far away. We are much
better than many of our boys, for they had
to take quarters in Halls and different places
but they could not play any Halls ON me
when l was hungry and wet.
Major Hamilton and Lieut.. Pilsbury came
up this morning and took breakfast with us
although they stop at Hotel they like ou'
lace tho best, next time write will tel
you more about this family that we are with
| do not think that any Of our boys wer'
killed OF wounded, but il had not had IN,
havernck with me should have been.
had it slung over my right shoulder which
brought it on my left hip, it had three day
rations of hard bread, tin dipper and tin
plate in it, and a canister shot took me fail
on the sack went through the dpper, bu
the force was so nearly gone that the tir
plate stopped it. yet it came very near knock
ing me down. picked the ball up and pu
il into my pocket and shall send it to you
with Sharps Sabine Rife that took from
the field with me belonging to some of the
rebels, aud il should never return you car
think OF me when you see the gun. have
just seen the Orderly Sergeant of Co. b. ant
he says every man is safe or accounted for
and not more than twenty of the 9Th is lost
!. ALEXANDRIA, Va, July 25th, 1851.
Mr.. CowAS-SIR The events Of the lest
few days seem more like gloomy dream thar
| a reality Only a frw havs since n snlenlid