Camp near Stafford C.H. Va

15 May

                       

Dear Brother

             It was with much pleasure that I received your letter of the 12 was glad to hear that you are in good health & also phene & children. I think if phene had to travel as we do & had hard tack to chew she would not have quite as much fat as she has now . . . . . .

 

            I am in good health & so are all of the boys that are left in the Co. I suppose you have seen the account of the fight that we have had & it was a fight our Brigade has been knocked around everywhere for the last three weeks after we started on the march everything went well for the first 5 days just at night of the 6 day we came to Elysford Sh[?]s body guard found about 150 rebs a building a bridge they / fired on the Cavelry the Cavelry run as usual they then came & sent our regt out as skermishers we went about two miles in the woods & brought our right around so as to flank the curs they killed two of the Cavelry & we did the same for them & took every one of them but the Cavelry got the praise of it the next day we started again got to Chancellorsville & then we got enough we were fighting & skermishing for 5 days but on Satwarday we got it the hardest Old Gen Williams told us the rebs waggon train was cut off & wanted the 3 Brigade to go & bring it in we started but you better believe it was as much as we could do to bring ourselves in for the rebs had driven the 11 Corps fighting out of there entrenchments & had got in ours when we started after the waggons we had orders to leave our knapsacks we left everything we had when we got back the Rebs had them & gave warm invatation in / the shape of minnie bullets to come & get them but we concluded not to go and laid in line of battle all night in the morn the ball was opened we drove the cusses for about 2 mile you had better believe we yelled some in a short time the yell was in the other side as we were driving them we came acrost a reb Capt we all thought him dead so we boys began to confiscate his goods Foss buckeled on his swoard Al Houghton was after his pistol & haversack & I was a stradle of him after a gold watch I saw on him just as I got hold of it the poor fool opened his eyes & wanted to know what in hell we wanted we were so pleased that we left him. our Ed Butler was beside of me when he was shot he was hit in the left brest & came out under the right shoulder he was hit again through the right shoulder Houghton & myself carried from the field but could not get him to the Hospital we had to leave him for the rebs were almost on us we had to run in the / woods to get away from them he could not live if we had got him away. But Houghton was not shot till after we came out of the fight we were standing in a line up by the batterys when a solid shot came & hit him in the knee & the one behind him they both of them had there legs taken off at the knee Houghton lived about three hours Peter Mann & John Henry was wounded we had three killed & 8 wounded in our C^o in the regt we had we had 120 killed & wounded & 10 missing C^o B had at the first fire 18 killed & wounded C^o I 16 Haley Jo formerly of your C^o was killed he was wounded & when they were carrying him from the field a shell came & cut him in to as we were agoing from the field we had to pass by a well there were a croud around the well trying to get a drink you know how they always croud around a well when a shell came & exploded right in the center of them it killed or wounded all of them another shot came it hit a battery officer on horse back & took his head off & left him sitting on his horse when the rebs came out of the woods they came column closed in mass. twenty of our batterys opened on them with grape & canister Oh how they were piled up just as they came up 4 deep the woods got on fire & the wounded thousands of them were burnt up if Jo Hooker had attacked them the next day we might have drove them or took the whole of them but as it was they left in the night & we did the same Both sides were afraid of one another you had ought of seen the Dutchmen run in the 11 Corps dont you believe what the papers say Old Jo Hooker got most consider whipped

 

[front top margin upside down]

 

we marched back to our old camp at Stafford in one day from the field of battle it took us 7 days to go there

 

Give love to Loucretia tell her I have wrote two letters to her love to phene & children write soon In Haste

 

From your Brother                  

John H Swarman                    

 

Good by write soon   

 

they will not let the papers that tell the truth of the fight come in

                                               

Camp Tell phene she can see the [faded] I suppose she see the other good by

SOURCES