Martinsburg Virginia July 13^th

 

Dear Susan

                        My sheet is even more defective than yours I only hope that its contents will prove as acceptable We arrived at this town in close pursuit of the enemy on the eve of 4^th of July a very unpleasant Fourth to us all I think & one I shall remember long. We had a hot and tedious march of 16 miles fording the Potomac and taking a siesta of 3 hours at Falling Waters the battle ground of the previous day. Our camp that night was pitched on a side hill in ploughed ground grown over with wild onions which smelt so strong that we named it "camp Garlic". We were exposed the rays of the hottest kind of a sun for 7 days and when it rained the clayey soil was ankle deep in mud even inside our tents several of our horses sickened with a distemper & two died. We had for neighbors an Irish Brigade from Penn'a & some Wisconsin boys who were constantly wrangling with each other & making night hideous with their noise. However we could stand everything but being cut off from our letters. The very first we have seen since we left Washington July the 1^st in the eve were the batch which arrived an hour ago and which contained one from you kind & sisterly as ever and deserving an immediate answer. It is now raining right smart & has all the morning keeping us inside our tents so I have embraced the present opportunity with more promptness that "usual" I believe "to the Wild family". I am using the flat side of a tin canteen for a desk which may possibly account for the bad looks of the writing. If I felt any certainty of our letters sent from here reaching their destination I would have written you before but I am not at all sure that you will get this one owing to our imperfect postal arrangements. We left Camp Garlic two days ago and have improved our condition much being now on the opposite side of the town in a pleasant grove with the / New York 12^th Reg one side & 28^th on the other. By the way Frank Barlow is here within a stone's throw of me as 1^st Lieut. of Company F in the 12^th so queer to meet old classmates in the field of battle. He was not far from us in Washington but we never met till yesterday. Our pickets are constantly exchanging shots with the enemy's picket and some are shot or taken prisoner every day on both sides. We had an imposing funeral yesterday in the 28^th Reg with the usual vollies. It seemed as though we had some work to do when we first joined General Patterson but now he is hanging back with his usual prevarication waiting for large reinforcements which are arriving daily. We must strike a blow soon or not at all for two weeks more complete our term of enlistment which is up the same day with the N.York 12^th 2^nd Wisconsin Reg. I saw brother Ned three times in Washington and spent one night with him he was in much better health & spirits than I expected to see and I believe this campaign will be just the chequer for him. He overtook his Reg in Baltimore I believe any how he was with them when they struck Washington and was faring quite well. when I saw him he had just parted from Fred & Chas Heath (who did up the Capitol in their usual hurry) who came on in a morning train and left soon after dinner same day at Willards' Hotel. We have not had a cent of pay since I wrote you before but I expect it reached Washington soon after we left and is awaiting us there. Such Poverty generally so hard to bear has proved easy at last for it has become general & it has awakened the better portions of all our natures causing many to exhibit a generosity to which it was supposed they were strangers. All through this expedition we have been reduced to the roughest fare and often not enough of that. Here in Virginia money is of little use for the inhabitants have been robbed by the "seccessh" so thoroughly that they have nothing left to sell & we soldiers with our hard bread salt junk & coffee fare even better than the citizens in many cases. I am just as much obliged for the [remainder of stricken line illegible]

 

and only pray that you will not [stricken word illegible] me too deep in debt. /

 

I had written this far when I discovered that there was a sheet in your envelope but I fear that my time is growing too brief to transfer it to your paper for the storm has cleared off & the sun is up shining brightly bringing plenty of visitors to our tent to interrupt me. Our tent holds five besides myself & pretty close stowing at that so you can readily perceive how much confusion they make running in & out each one telling what news they had in their letters and asking questions at the same time. It is a busy life though a monotonous one hardly ever allowing one a chance for silence or retirement. Wet guns are being fired off and loaded again on all sides / of us sounding like a perpetual fourth of July. This is done after every shower to clean the guns out & keep them serviceable. We have five roll calls a day here but no drills for the nature of the ground will not admit it. We use up the time in foraging. We have just received orders to leave here on Monday but in what direction is yet a myth probably to Winchester. I hope to receive your next in Washington also some word from home or else I may enlist for a three years cruise. I am quite well and believe me ever your loving brother

                                                                       

Walter

           

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