Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1863-04-30
THE CAVALRY AGAIN.

-. NANALAt aoAiNs
! A letter written by Theodore P. Skin.
ncr of Co. l, to his friends in Barton,
is published in the Irasburgh Standard
Our readers are SO much interested in this
regiment, no doubt the following will be
read with interest:
AT O'Clock, A. NJ, the orderly came around
and awoke us, and told. every man to rise and
saddle his horse and get into ranks in five min.
utes, which we did We had fallen back from
Evansville, the day before, some miles, and we
heard that Mosbys men had come to that place
expecting to find us there. We went round so
as to come intheir rear, and we were somewhat
disappointed in not finding them there. Our
captain SAID that he supposed that they had gone
down the pike to bait, and We went down the
road about two miles, where there was a road
that turned to the right, and we could see their
tracks. We took this road, and came to a large,
nice farm house, and we saw them in the barn
yard. We were pleased when we saw them, for
we thought we had got them in tight place :;
for we had been there before. and knew there
was no other place for them to come out only in
front OF us, which they did, but not without
some loss.
When Capt. Flint saw them he said '.For-
ward Company |; forward with those car
Poor fellow, he seemed to think that Company
! and those carbines could not be defeated We
had to go through gate before we came to the
yard, and when we got in it was not very
good place to come out.
Lieut.. Woodbury., of Co. B. came up at the
same time, and exclaimed Here they are -
any quantity of them, boys" and dismountinp
he tore down the fence in order 10 take his com
pany round to the right, so that the rebels could
not get round us. When we had discharged our
carbines and revovers we went around to the
eft. where we had to jump over fence Part Of
therebes followed us, and part of them charged
on 20. Band they were afraid to stand their
ground, because the rebels were dressed in our
uniform, and when they got in among them,
they could not distinguish friend from foe. We
had. also, company in the rear for reserve ;
but when they saw us running, they ran too-and
so 1t was every man for himself, and the devil
for US all, as some of the boys said but think
the Lord was for us all ; for if he had had not
been. there would have been more of us killed
than there were. Although we have to mourn
the loss of our brave and noble Captain and Lieut.
and some Others yet think we have reason to
be thankful that no more of us were killed. We
do not know how many were killed, but we have
written to the boys, and trust we shall soon
hear There were IS of us-lS out of our COM
pany-cousin George, Sargent Perry. VIM.
Chamberlin, (son of the late Rev. Schuyler
Chamberlin, of Craftsbury) is all you
know. ..-
Well, will now give you brief history of
my journey to Richmond. and of the accommo-
dations at the Libbey Prison. We were taken
as prisoners about o clock in the morning, and
we had to ride all day hard without anything to
eat. We lay out of doors at night, and at IL
o'clock we each got piece Of corn CAKE, about
half as big as your hand, and small piece of
meat-and the next morning the same. Then we
had to go afoot 20 Culpepper about As miles.
we were two days on the road, during part of
which time we got something to eat, aha during
the balance we got nothing. The second night
our rebel captors got bushel of corn meal, some
bacon and dishes and told us we must cook our
own cake : and we were glad to get it so, for we
Jared as wellas they did. | must say that they
used us well. They bet. us, have their horse
blankets to sleep on, for we had none. | tell
you there is an awful scarcity throughout Vir-
ginia Men, women and children are almost in
a state Of starvation.
We took the cars at Culpepper at o'clock in
the morning, and got to Richmond at o'clock
the next morning. We renamed there three
nights and two days Our fare consisted of
piece of bread each, half as large as q pint cup,
on the morning. and a small slice of meat. At
night we had the same quantity Of bread and
some soup-or rather dishwater-for it was no
better than that article, in any respect.
We took the cars at Richmond and went to
City Point seven honrs ride. Our boat came up
here on the James River, and brought down 452
rebel prsoners-the raggedest, drtest and lousi-
est set you ever saw. We stopped at Fort Mon
roe, and now that is heavy old fort. We pass
ed one Of our gunboats. called Minnesota, which
mounted Sc guns, 1t seemed to US like going
home when we went aboard the boat and there
found plenty of crackers soft bread and coffee
Bully for Uncle Sam and his hard crackers, pork
and beef | will fight for him as long as live
Ihave much more that desired to write. but
cannot now. Accept this hasty sketch from your
afectionate brother.