Deep Bottom Va        

Aug 15. 64

 

Dear Laura, yours of the 9^th came to hand last evening. I am not well but much better than when I last wrote. we have had some severe fighting. we have been firing two days. my gun was disabled but I have another and will hold out as long as possible. I am still safe. the shells are bursting all around us and my letter must be short. we left Petersburg on the 12^th and arriving here on the 13^th marched all knight. I was so sick I could scarcely set in the saddle but I worried it through. I am thankful to you for your kind letter. they served so well for me to read amid / danger and trials.

 

Sargt Wiremans home is at Troytown near Danville. I took dinner there when on my furlough. the family are strictly religious, and highly respected.

 

I expect to lose $100 I sent to Embler on the 30^th July. I think it has been lost through the Express Company. he did not receive it up to the 9^th Aug. this is the first I have lost in the Army, but I hope to get it yet.

 

The weather continues hot and dry. I think if I could breathe the pure air of old Penn^a and see a smile on some fair ones face I would feel so much better but here we are, the air is filled with bare limbs from dead horses and men enough to sicken the strongest / man. all the springs and wells thick with mud not fit for a horse. we had good water at Petersburg but I do not complain I expect to see hard times which I am used to, but I merely tell you how unfortunate the poor men are.

 

I must hasten to a close otherwise the Rebs may help me but I have become so accustomed to hear shells whizzing and bursting I do not mind it. the gunboats have been throwing hundred pound shells all day. they make as much noise as a horse and cart would flying through the air, and make holes in the earth large enough to put half dozen men in. imagine to hear a piece of metal traveling through the / air at the rate of twelve miles per minute, weighing over three hundred pounds. you can form some idea of the musick. When they hit a man nothing remains but the scattering, mangled parts of the body. O how cruel is war. man in youth just when he promises to be useful is ushered into eternity in the twinkling of an eye, one moment your comrade stands by your side in all the vigor of manhood, and perhaps the next breath he draws he tells you I must die. this I have so often seen, but I will have close. please answer. My kind regards to the family. I am yours always

WHThurston

SOURCES