Camp Near Fredericsburg Va.

May 24^th 1863.

                                   

Dear Sister.

                                                I received your letter last Thursday night, and will proceed to answer it at once. The envelopes came in a good time for I had only one left. I shall have to draw on you again for postage stamps about the next time you write. Did you find that quarter in my last sundays letter? I rather think not for the reason that I did not put it in. If I think of it this time I will send it. I thought of it just after I had sealed the letter and tried to open it (the envelope) but it had got dried so that I should have spoiled the envelope so I let it go as it was. 

 

We are having an awful hot snap out here how is it where you are? We have not had any rain since a week ago last Monday or Tuesday and each day since has been hotter than the one before it. the sun rises and sets every day like a ball of blood and we cant see any prospect of there being a little rain just to cool the air a little. I expect when it does come it will come like an avalanche and sweep every thing before it. I expect by the time I write to you again we shall be on picket so you may not be much disappointed if you do not get a letter from me at the usual time. I expect we shall have another portion of the river to picket now, as the first Corps pickets the ground where we did before we made the march We shall now go down the river five or six miles into King George's County 

 

I have been tramping around the country considerably since we came into this camp Friday I was up to the Sixth Army Corps Hospital to see our wounded men. they all appear to be doing as well as could be expected. Mowry is there alive. whether he will get well or not is not known. he is able to go around anywhere, but the ball is in him and cannot be got out. it went in just at the nipple and it is thought passed around under the left arm. He is the one you know that stood in my shoes at the time of the fight. We rode back to Falmouth on the cars that night and footed it the rest of the way to camp. I am glad that there is a prospect of getting the pictures of the folks at home. I should like to have them small. the size of Eva's is the best to carry, as they are not liable to get broken or bent out of shape. I have got quite a collection in my diary where I carry them. Corporal Fales' father & mother are in camp today they come to get his body. he / was killed Sunday night and left in the woods She told me this morning they were going across the river today. She said they had got everything necessary in the shape of passes from the Sec of War, and all that was required now was Hookers permission. (they live in Washington) I dont believe the rebels will allow them to go so far inside their lines, and even if they do, he is probably buried with a lot of others and no one will know where he was put. She brought a lot of stuff with her for the wounded. she gave me half a dozen onions. I did not mention anything about my health because I forgot too. It is good as it ever was and has been through all the fighting, retreating, and stormy weather that we had in the campaign just finished. It is a wonder how men can live at all in such times, say nothing about being sick or well. When we followed the rebels from Maryes heights it seemed as though the blood would burst through my flesh in every place. We had to go so fast and without having a chance to rest that it seemed as though I could not make another step. 

 

            We rested about fifteen minutes by the side of a little stream after the rebels had abandoned their last entrenchments. I guess I drank somewhere about a quart of mud (It couldnt be called water for the whole army was marching through it) and lay down on the grass until the order was given to "fall in" I felt then as well as ever, and we marched away to a little piece of woods where we lay about three hours and got a little sleep from three oclock till night. we had work to do but it was no such work as we did in the fore noon. the road was so full of troops we could not move very fast and had chances to sit down almost every fifteen minutes. While we were fighting I did not feel as any thing was on me except my clothes my knapsack and haversack I did not feel in the least. But you had better / believe we sweat some. I wish you could have seen us about sundown. If you could you would have seen a clean looking lot of men, faces all covered with powder and smoke running down in streaks. we was a sweet looking mess of boys. It seemed a pity to have my gun all covered with powder smoke as it was. It looked very little like the one I carried in, not but very little polish to it. It has improved greatly in appearance since we have been in camp but I never can make it look as it did in the winter That long storm gave the rust too much of a start to be easily got out

 

            Tuesday morning after we had got back to this side of the river we got orders to go back & take care of the pontoons that had been hauled out of the river and left on the bank, but which the engineers could not get away on account of the sharpshooters on the other side. As soon as we came out of the woods / so the rebels could see us they opened on us from a battery. Our Col. did not know exactly where the bridge was and so we marched some ways out of our way we went around a complete circle under the rebel guns which had a first rate range on us, but a trifle too high. every one of the shells went just over us until we got into a ravine that led to the bridge and where they could not see us. here we got just about as far beyond their range as before we had been inside it, and their shell kept about the same distance all the way around. It seemed as though the cannoniers were perfectly acquainted with the position of the ground, and calculated pretty closely on the rate we travelled, for just as sure as we came to a turn in the ravine just so sure would they be to shift their guns into such a position as would drop a shell behind our heels. After we got as far down as we could go with safety we halted and lay down. / The sides of the ravine we were in arose on each side as high as forty feet, but it seemed as though them rebels could look through that bank as plainly as though it had been glass, for as soon as we stopped and lay down they stopped moving their guns in the circle and so continued firing at the same range. Along towards the last they fired solid shot and we could hear them as they come whizzing through the air and go chuck into the ground above our heads. just as sure as a man on horse back made his appearance out of the ravine they would put a shot after him but a man on foot they paid no attention to. They kept up this work until two oclock in the afternoon when stopped firing altogether, and troubled us no more the next day the pickets on the other side came down to the river and as we no longer kept hid it was not long before we were on the same terms as when we picketed together before the battle I guess I have written about as much as you did in your last so I will stop. I had no difficulty at all in reading your letter. I should like such ones all the time, but I suppose it is as hard for you to find something to write about at times as it is for me and I know sometimes its hard work for me to think of anything. L. C. Cook.

 

When do you think you will get your Richmond paper? I will send it if I can get one.

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