Away up in the mountains

I dont know where

But somewhere in the

neighborhood of Harpers Ferry.

 

Sept 15 1862.             

                       

Dear Sister,

                                                Dont you think that is one way to date a letter. I begun to think before I got it all down that the commencement alone would more than fill up the first page. I will try to give you as good an idea of the place we are in as I am able to, and perhaps by the aid of the newspapers you may possibly determine pretty near where we are situated. 

 

We marched through Leesburg Poolsville one day last week and on in this direction not making any hard marches any day. Sunday we passed through Adamstown on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, a very pretty place and which reminded me very much of some of our New England villages. we marched a few miles in the day time and at night arrived at Jefferson quite a little village. here we halted, ate our suppers, and waited for the teams having our provisions on board to come up so we could get something to eat the next day. after they came to us we started again and halted at a little place which I cant remember the name of till this morning when we came / here we are now on picket and my post is in a big ploughed field right out in the hot sun without any shade at all.

 

I suppose there has been terrible fighting done in these mountains since last Friday morning. there has been an almost constant cannonading for three days past which we could hear and yesterday afternoon we could hear the musketry. There is all manner of stories going the rounds as to the results of the fighting. It is said Burnside has taken a large lot of prisoners and a battery And I know that Smith has taken quite a number. This morning I passed over a portion of the battle field of yesterday afternoon which looked as though the charge of Slocum must have been an awful / punishment to the rebels.

 

I stood on one spot in the woods and counted somewhere about fifteen dead rebels lying among the works and once in a while a dead horse could be seen. The Doctor that was at Yorktown when I was there last spring was in the field looking at the wounded and I saw him stop and take out a ball from one of the rebels. We had to stop quite often and all go over to one side of the road as we were marching along to make room for the prisoners that had been taken. they were all treated first rate that I saw none of them were insulted in passing along by being asked how they liked to get into the Yankees hands and called d—d rebels and so on. they were all very talkative and it seemed as though they were some of our own men and in speaking to each other they would / always commence with "friend" They all said they had no hopes they should succeed in obtaining their independence and would then add "we had too many men for them". I saw the Adjutant of the fourth New Jersey regiment lying dead in a building in the village this morning, killed by a grape shot. We can hear occasional cannonading in the mountains this afternoon but it dont sound as it did yesterday and day before.

 

I got your letter the last one the next day after I sent mine You have lost your "bet" about my barking with a cold the night you were writing for I have not / had a cold in a long time I feel best I ever did in my life I dont know as I feel the best, but I am just as well as I ever was and can carry my knapsack as far as any of the men.

 

I dont know as you will ever get this for I dont know how I shall send it or when, but our mail facilities at present are not very good. I shall write as often as I can but you must not be disappointed if there is no letter from me in two or three weeks. I shall look for a letter from you in the next mail that comes. I should liked to have been at home that time you write of.

                                   

L. C. Cook.

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