Harissonburg March 6^th 1864

 

            Dear wife I avail myself of this opportunity of writing you a few lines to let you know that I am in the enjoyment of very good health at this time & hope they may find you all the same we have had some rite eventful times in the last few days I wrote to you on the 26 ult then we were at Trinity 11 miles below here on this river I thought then it was probable that we would stay there some time but on the first day of March in the evning there came news that there were gunboats in the river & it was but a short time till we began to hear them howl most teribly & in a short time they were close enough to throw their missils of death in our midst as we had not gotten any guns mounted yet we were in poor condition to fight them but our General did not wish to give up the place without resistance so we were formed & marched over the bank (of little river a stream puting in to the Wachita) which sheltered us from the shots of the enemy for a while though the grape & shell fell thick around us but fortunately there was no person injured there were two gunboats & four transports all carrying heavy guns they shelled us an hour or so & passed on up the river by this time it was getting dark & we were started back to this place the roads were very bad the country low & swampy & there had been a heavy rain a few days before that made the roads allmost impassable we marched a mile or two & came up with a company of artilery men part of it mired down mud knee deep on the road we find pot vessels & meal & other things / thrown overboard out of the wagons & some of them broke & mired down. you will think well this looks very much like a rout but it is not the boats have passed on & we look for them to attack Harissonburg in the morning if not sooner besides that we have a bayou to ferry before we get there we march all night through mud & water from an inch to knee deep & reach our old camp at harissonburg just before day it is also very cold the ground freezes a little & a good many have lost their shoes in the mud & are entirely barefooted & this brings to my mind Jess's remark that he would not mind the service if he was here I just imagined if he had of been there in the mud knee deep with his toes turned out at an angle of about forty degrees & shivering with cold evry time he^d stop that he wouldnt mind it & if he thinks so tell him to come down & I will swap places with him for a while. but notwithstanding we have some hard times I think infantry service the easiest, but I would rather be on the frontier on account of my family well as we expected about 9 Oclk the gunboats began began to let off at us again & this Brigade was disposed of in different places Stephens & the 17 Regt fougt them on the bank of the river we were placed in a valley close to town. I had written to you that we had three large guns here & two of them mounted well they had been taken down to trinity & the enemy coming before we got them mounted they were rolled in to the river so we had to fight them here with field artillery & small arms they shelled for about three hours during that time we fougt them as we could get position. they then passed on up the river & about 2 Oclk they came back & commenced again & shelled a couple of hours & went on down the river again we had three men killed & some fifteen wounded Several of them having died since & 3 or 4 houses burned next morning we hear them at trinity again Some of our Regts start down there but they are gone before they get there when they will come back I have no idea not soon probably as the river is very low & falling

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