Year: 1864

ONE MILE FROM PETERSBURG VA.


SUNDAY MORNING, June 19, 1864.


DEAR MorHER:-1 thought would i'm
prove the few leisure moments of this
holy Sabbath morning in writing to you,
for presume this letter will be detain-
ed eight days in Washington, as all
soldiers letters are, for what purpose is
more than l can tell, but that is the case;
at least have heard so. have written
two letters to you, in one l sent two
photographs, which l would not lose for
any thing; one was likeness of Oscar
Watts, and his intended, and the other
was of young man by the name of Mil
ton Bacon. We were in the same tent
all winter, and like brothers, more
than friends; they are both gone now,
and all that is left of our happy little
household is myself the most unworthy
of the three. Watts was shot through
the body, and lived about eight hours
Milton was shot through the head, and
never spoke after. I wrote to Millions
mother and told her that he was mortaly
wounded. 1 did not like to tell her he
was dead, but she has found out the
dreadful truth. 1 sent her his bible
given him by her when he went forth to
battle for the starry flag beneath which
he fell, and the letter which she had
written to him, and a great many little
things that will be priced by his mother
and sisters. 1t was an unpleasant duty
for me to perform but it was the fulfill
ment of promise made to him, He
and Watts had your address, and it was
an agreement between us, that If any
one of US was killed, or badly wounded,
or taken prisoner. the one that was
left should write to the friends of the
fallen. Capt. Wheeler has died of his
wounds, he lived a number of days, but
did not live to get home. Our company
has also lost two Lieutenants, and is now
commanded by the Orderly Sergeant
Out of three hundred men, which was
the strength of the regiment when we
left Brandy Station, we have lost 140, al
most half, and our regiment has not lost
as heavy as many other regiments in the
corps.


The world never knew what war was
until this campaign. could tell you of
sights that would make your blood cur
die.


Gen. Grant has never been whipped in
single engagement, and believe he
would sacrifice the whole army, before he
would suffer a defeat. His motto is vic
tory; no matter what the cost. We have
got so used to bullets and bomb shells,
that we feel lonesome when they are not
singing about our ears. You can form
some idea of our recklessness when tell
you that am sitting now behind breast
work within $50 yards of the Rebels: the
bullets are flying over our heads thick
and fast. Every time man shows his
head he is fired at by sharp-shooters, and
our own artillery is back of us few rods,
keeping up a continual roar, and the reb-
els are az busy as we are. Within the
last fifteen minutes there has been in our
regiment, about 30 feet to the left of me,
one man killed and one wounded. The
flag that was reared upon the breast-work
has been shot down and put up again;
but there is no general engagement go
ing on. This is all doEe merely for pass
time. The rebels are behind their works
in front of us; the Pickets of both arm
les are between the two lines of breast
works, and about so yards apart, watch
ing each other as cat would watch
mouse. This you know is a day of rest.
Grant will not fight to-day, unless he is
attacked; and as we whipped the rebels
nicely yesterday, | do not think they
will attack us to day. We worked all
last night, throwing up the line of breast
works, which protects us to-day. 1t
would be an interesting sight to any one
who has never seen such task perform
ed. 1t is difficult and dangerous duty,
and one entrusted to old soldiers only.


When the sunset.last night, there was
an open field, nearly mile in length,
between US and the rebels. They were
in the edge of piece of woods opposite
then. As soon as dark came, we cut a
log for each man, as large as he could car
ry, took them to the open field and laid
them down and waited for the signal
agreed upon. Not a word was to be spo-
ken. There we lay fat upon the ground
every man listening for the signal. Moth
ing was to be carried but our guns the
first trip. Pretty soon we heard what
those who did not know any better would
think was whip-poor-will, but it was the
signal to move forward, and like snake
in the grass wecommenced to crawl to
wards the enemy's line, it took us over
an hour before we came in sight of the
line of breast-works occupied by the
els where we stopped, got into as straight
line as possible and laid our guns down in
front of US, then one-half, or every other
man, went back and got log, and while the
rest lay with their guns cooked and aimed
upon the rebel work; those with the logs
came as near as they dare, then laid the
log down and rolled it up to the line
where we built the work; then they took
their muskets and watched while the 9th
er party went after logs; we then rolled
a log up where we wanted it, commen
cling on the left of the line; each compa
ny rolling up the first log successfully
and after each company had got the bot
tom log laid, we took our bayonets and
dug up the ground in front of the line
and threw it up against the logs with oul
tin cups, plates and hands, until
we piled it up even with the top ol
the first log, then we rolled up another