Camp Near Fredericksburg Va.

Dec. 20. 1862.

                       

Dear Sister.

                                    I have written one letter since I received your last one but as I have plenty of time now and as we have made a strategic movement within the last few days I will give you a little sketch of it. Monday morning we got up bright and early long enough before light and went out to the front while the tenth Mass. deployed in front of us as skirmishers. we all expected as soon as daylight came to see a terrible battle commence. I heard the lieut. commanding the battery we were comm supporting say that as soon as it was light he should open his guns with two and a half and three and three and a half second fuse shells, so I concluded we were within short range of the rebels. at daylight we could see the rebels about half a mile ahead and all along the hills to the right of us. along towards noon our skirmishers and the rebels came together and had a friendly chat / our boys giving them coffee while they supplied us with tobacco. in the afternoon they commenced throwing up intrenchments, when our battery let drive a shower of shells that drove them away. we saw three horses running off with no riders and the next day they told us that we killed six cavalry and that was all the damage there was done.

 

Gen. Franklin rode up from the left of the line and ordered the battery to stop firing, not fire another gun says he. two of the guns were loaded but he would not let them be discharged. at sundown we got some shovels and leveled a place in the gutter side of the road to sleep in we got cornstalks and put in so we had a firstrate bed, but soon after news came that we were going to retreat across the river. We did not believe it at first but it was soon made evident to us that it was to be done. the caissons to the batteries were drawn off first leaving the guns in position they had held all day. we watched the caissons and saw they went across the river then we knew there was some thing up. It seemed as everything worked in our favor. there was a strong south wind blowing which kept the noise from going over to the rebels but I was dreadful afraid when the battery went off making such a racket / they could not help hearing it, and bring them down on us like a thousand of brick but they did not hear us at least they did not come down on us I lay down in the gutter and slept till we were ready to go and then went off we started about nine oclock I guess and we were kept moving a rod or two at a time, till we got across, over six hours going one mile. Gen. Deven's Adjutant fell off his horse in trying to get up a steep bank and broke his leg. this was the reason I suppose why we kept marching around so much, for Devens did not seem to know anything at all what to do or where to go. Co. I was the first Co to go over the river when the advance was made and it was the last one to cross on the retreat. as soon as we got on the bridge the engineers commenced tearing it up they had got considerable of it up when about half a regiment came down the bank to cross. they had been on picket and came very near being left but they managed to get across some way or other at four oclock we had every man on the north bank of the river safe, and I was glad for one to get out of the trap we had been in so long. for all the time since Thursday night till Monday night we were directly under the enemys guns. I believe all that Lee wanted was for us to get / our trains on that side of the river, a little more artillery too, and get us to take our big guns off from the hills in front of Fredericksburg, and he would have swept those plains with grape and canister till our army would have had to surrender. I think he swore some the next morning when he got up and found that his bird had flown, and I aint sure but he would have been ready then to have opened on us. Well we have lost I suppose five or six thousand more men, and what is it amounting to? I made up my mind some time ago that I wasnt fighting for my country and the longer I stay here the more I think so. We are fighting for a mean set of politicians, so mean that they would willingly see this country drained to the last man, and the last dollar providing they could sit in the high places lean back on their cushions have all the luxuries the world can give and tell us to go on and fight our countrys battles "Brave heroes", if you fall we will write your names on history's undying pages then turn around and laugh at us. I am willing to fight to put down the rebellion but to go on and fight the way we are doing now and have for the six months and I might say since we came out here I dont want to and the sooner the thing is settled the better. There was the biggest pack of lies told about Saturdays fight in the papers I ever read and I think the most that you read at home is lies Lowell C Cook.

 

[Sunday, December 15, 1861.]

 

It has been pretty warm today. It looks now as if it might rain tomorrow or before morning. We got up this morning at three oclock, cooked our breakfasts and went on to the front. the Sec R.I. supported a battery and the seventh Mass. skirmished beyond us. The rebels are plainly to be seen passing one way and the other. they have a battery in our front. this afternoon they commenced throwing up intrenchments when our battery put the shell to them for about fifteen minutes, which made them skedaddle. There has been no fighting today of any amount_x

 

[Monday, December 16, 1861.]

Last night at sundown or as soon as it was dark the whole army began to retreat across the river. every thing worked in our favor and before four oclock this morning the rear guard was across and the engineers were taking up their bridges. we marched about a mile and halted a little while until the brigade become alerted then went on a half mile further and camped. the rain began to fall about this time and rained fast till eight oclock when it cleared away. the rest of the day has been fair and pleasant with a little wind from the northwest The rebels did not find out we were gone till daylight_x

 

[Tuesday, December 17, 1861.]

We have been in camp all day where we came in yesterday. It has been colder than yesterday and tonight we get around the fire, huddled in together like sheep under a shed in a storm_x I have been out on the hill today looking over the river. the rebels occupy the ground we lately held and are plainly to be seen the ground is all covered with them and their pickets come to the river bank. twelve of them came across this afternoon and the same number of ours went over on their side One of Co I men was one of the number. they say they are going to conquer in the end_x

 

[Wednesday, December 18, 1861.]

Last night Col Viall gave the men permission to go to the seventh and twelvth R.I. Reg^ts about two miles off. a good many went, but when they turned around to come back they got lost in the woods and many are still away_x

We marched this morning about two miles back towards Bell Plains, and camped in a nice little grove of pines. We have been most all the afternoon at work laying out co. streets, and pitching our tents Parkhurst is one of the lost men in last nights tramp and I have gone in with Lewis, the one who owns a blanket I sent home last spring_x

 

[Thursday, December 19, 1861.]

It has been a pleasant day though its clouding up now. it was pretty cold last night. It seemed this morning when I went out of the woods after water just like going out of the house in the morning_x

I have been at work all the forenoon cooking. I got my breakfast down, and then went to cooking a lot of old beans for my dinner they got done about one oclock when I had a first rate meal, and enough left for supper Parkhurst has brought up at last and has been asleep on the ground all the time since_x We hear they are beginning to talk about recognizing the Southern Confederacy in Congress_x

 

[Friday, December 20, 1861.]

It has been fair to day but cold We have kept pretty close to the fire all day, only going away to get wood and water. we have piled logs in front of our tent, so that they make a sort of fireplace. this throws the heat all into the tent, making it comfortable with only a small fire. a wooden fire place will not be likely to wear like a brick one but it is good while it lasts and when it burns out we can make another. We had a lot of potatoes come to us today a barrel to a co. I suppose they have been froze or they would not give them to us. they are large nice ones_x

SOURCES