Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1861-10-04
Letters From the Camp.
CAMP AT SPENCER, Roane Co, Va,
Sept. 18th, 1861.

Deer Fatker:-I embrace the oppor-
tunity of sending you a few lines, by
Mr.. George Story. Your letter by
James H. Ralstoa, Sergeant Major,
came safely to hand assure you l
was as happy to hear from you, as you
were from me. Your kindness in send
ing me some money, aud in getting my
watch fixed, I shall remena ber it, if we
ever get paid. I sent you few lines
by Mr.. Gibson, of Mason City, who
after learning we were all cut to pieces,
bundlea ep and came here. We have
no mail facilities in this region Of the
Old Dominion; we have to wait until
some one is going through to some
peint on the Ohio river, and then send
our letters by them. We get nc papers
here, only by troops passing through
here. In your letter you wished to
know if it was Fort Pickens Slemner
that I spoke of in my letter. 1t was.
While he remained here he was Com
mander-in chief He appears to be a
pretty shrewd kind of man, and sup
pose he is good military man. lie is
somewhat distant in his manners, not
much to say, but, perhaps, thinks the
more, and is very strict upon the men,
and can see pretty well, l think, if he
does look through glasses. Our boys
thought him too strict upon his men,
You wished me to fill up letter with
camp duty and scouting Incidents
Well, for camp duty, such as we have,
l will give you hasty account. First
in erder, in the morning, is Roll call;
at 81 clock, P. NJ, if we have been
notified by the Adjutant that the night
before our men must go on guard,
I then notify the men that they must
be on hand at o'clock, at Z l call for
the guard, who take their place in rank;
l then call their names to see that all
are present that have been notified to
60 on guard; [ then march 70 the parade
grounds where the Adjutant takes CON
troll Of them, and the Sergeant Mai jor
divides them into reliefs, after which,
the Corporals each takes his relief ut
and relieves the men on duty. There
is Sergeant and Lieutenant of the
guard, the latter is commissioned eff :
Ger, the other non-commissioned Off
Ger. Besides these, we also have an
officer Of the day, whose business it is
to see that the pickets are all stationed
at the place designated for them The
officer Of the day is generally some Cap
tain taken cut of some Of the companies.
We keep pretty sharp lookout here
There is 66 men on picket. Last night
one of Captain Welton S men, on picket,
shot at two men who were sneaking
about, and this morning blood was
found on the ground where they were
when the picket shot at him. Itis sup
posed that he got flesh wound. [
think that they were after some cattle
we have, that they claim to be theirs.
Three of the Union Home Guards, of
this place, found place where the Reb-
els had some 32 head Of cattle, herding
them in the woods, and routed 10 men
that were watching them and brought
them into Spencer, and we are now liv-
ing on Secesh beef which goes frst-rate.
But We have to keep watch Of them, so
that they do not get them again. Some
fifteen men of our Regiment were out
scouting last night and have just come
in with tive or three prisoners.
! When we so out on scout we carry
with us provisions enough to last the
trip, which is sometimes three days, our
knapsack, blanket, haversack, with
three days grub, and cartridge box
with forty rounds of cartridges; these,
with the gun, makes up our store, and
you can judge how much Of load we
carry. But | stand the tramps first
rate.
Our Colonel is one of those kind of
men that one cannot help liking. He
is very sociable, and will stop and con-
verse with any Of us. Isometimes have
quite chat with him when l have bust.