Camp of the 2^nd R.I.V.

Near Williamsport Md.

Sept 23. 1862.

                       

Dear Sister,

                                                I suppose if I do not write before long you will begin to think I am either killed or wounded, and perhaps both, so I will scribble a few lines first to let you know that I am neither one or the other.

 

The last letter I wrote you was dated a week ago to day I think written while on picket. we staid there two nights and one day and lived like fighting cocks all the while at an old farmers close by us, who treated us first rate and in return for his kindness the men stole his potatoes, green corn / apples, peaches, and so on and tore down his fence and burnt his rails and used him shamefully The rebels passed through here before us a day or two before, but no one would have known it from any damage they done, the people all say they acted like gentlemen

 

I have this minute finished reading your letter mailed the twelveth I recon my eyes aint green yet. I look in the water once in a while and I do not see as they have altered color any at all I should like to see if E. N.'s has changed any in the last sixteen months.

 

After we had been on picket two nights we were taken off and with the whole Division sent almost to Harpers Ferry. when most there a part of us were sent back and the rest went on. we came back to the village of Boonesville or Brownsville and turned off to the left of the road and climb / the highest mountain in the range all the morning the battle at Sharpsburg had been raging the toughest kind and when we got to the top of the mountain we could see the whole of it. the whole valley was spread out before us the village in plain sight. we could see the batteries as they changed their positions and delivered their awful fire into each others ranks. we watched the fight go on for about two hours when we went down the same way we came. in the village we joined the remainder of the division and started for the fight as fast as we could go. we marched till the firing ceased after sundown and camped for the night. the next morning we kept on and reached the battle field somewhere towards noon, but no fighting was going on except a little picket firing. a little after dinner we went to the front where the bullets were whistling and lay down in a little hollow / I had got fairly settled down in a good place and was looking round to see how the rest of the boys looked, when I found I had laid down side of a dead rebel. Just before we left here a ball came singing along pretty close to us every one hugged the ground tight as a brick and the ball came chuck down on to the hip of Weeks in our company. Gosh says he "that hurt" the ball did not go through his clothes its force was so near spent. that night we supported the pickets and the next morning found the rebels had skedaddled. we had a chance to view the battleground unmolested. it was an awful sight you may well believe. every house in the village of Sharpsburg is riddled with shot and shell, one building close by where the hottest of the fight was completely torn to pieces. the fields woods cornfields for miles are scattered over with dead men and horses. On one of the hills where a rebel battery had been planted showed what two of our shells had done. / Each one had penetrated the caissons to two cannon and blown them to pieces around one of them I counted nine dead rebels and around the other eleven making twenty in all besides two horses all done by two of our shells. That afternoon we marched about three miles and along the whole way was scattered the bodies of the rebels and their horses I saw one that I am sure I have seen around home somewhere but who he was I cant think. Charles Wheelock, Jo Woods nephew and Calvin Wheelocks son I believe was killed in this fight and buried with with fifty eight others in one grave. Saturday morning a little after midnight we left Sharpsburg and marched in the direction of Williamsport where a body of rebels lay / ready for a fight at noon we halted stacked arms and waited till the rest of the Division came up when we formed in line of battle, our brigade on the right of road another on the left and the others in different positions to support us and we in the centre. It was the first time I ever heard the orders direct from the commanding general in the field. at the word "march" the whole line of battle moved forward with bayonets fixed and colors flying it was the most splendid sight I ever saw we found the enemy after going about a mile. we lay down under a side hill while the officers made observations. the result was they concluded we were too weak for them and we doubled quicked it back again about a mile and a half. the rebels left too the next day so we just scaped another fight making two fights that we have just missed this last week. but we have done marching enough to make up for it

 

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We lay close to St. Jame's College but we are to go on two miles further when the heat of the day is over I am tough, rugged, dirty and sassy but not lousy. L.C.C.

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