December 29^th 1862 on an expedition to Occoquan Creek   

 

Dear Parents

          your welcome letter came to me after I had mailed one to you and I thought I would wait untill I see what was agoing to turn up as we expected to have the forward march but it did not come off and we settled down into our quarters as we thought for the winter on Saturday I was detailed for picket on the manases rail road I went as usual but we had not been there long before we heard the bull dogs bark pretty loud in front towards Aquia Creek we did not think much about it untill about nine PM when the Captain of the 123 NYork came to give me the countersign he said we must keep a sharp look out as we expected trouble evry thing was quiet till about 11 PM when Lieut Sprague of our regiment came and ordered the pickets in as soon as possible in came G S Palmer post haste into camp at fairfax station and found that we were ordered to move with three days rations (thanks to Jerry he drew mine) without knapsacks and with twenty more rounds of pills for the 

 

            they are cartriges we call them pills

 

making sixty in all we left camp at sunrise and made a forced march of twenty miles the

 

            one is the second

 

first second and third Brigade we halted on whose farm do you think you might guess untill I come back and get it right it was Halsey Zibbals the one that went to Beckwith last winter (I have been there before) when we left our camp in Loudon we lay five miles below here the farm is all run down the man who lived there is in the army of the C.S.A. another man lives there who is not much better he is from Pittsfield Mass Stuarts Cavalry were here in the morning we have taken one of them he looks first rate they skedaddled for Dumfries a small town about three miles below here on the Chesapeake the way he was taken he got astray from the rest as our cannon shelled the woods in front of us and a cavalier was scouting along he rode up to the reb the reb says what regiment do you belong to he told him reb says take that at the same time drawing his sabre cut him across the hand the union feller thinking two could play the game drew his pistol and took Mr Reb prisoner his horse was a fine / one they may talk about the rebs not having enough to eat as much as they are mind to all that I have seen have enough and that is more than we can say we expected to have a fight as the wagons were sent to the rear but it did not come off we are ordered back to camp as the rebs are reported as at our camp at the station

 

Fairfax Station Tuesday evng 30^th

Dear Parents

you see that I am back to our old camp which is more than we dreamed of last sunday morning we thought we should make fredricksburg but we done all that we were ordered to twice we were drawn up in line of battle with loaded guns but all to no good for nary reb could we see but while we were gone the rebs got in our rear and played the old boy with the rail road near our camp those that were left back of our different regiments were ready to set on to our tents so as not to have them fall in the hands of the enemy you will see by the papers all about it probaly we have some better rations than when I wrote to you also have tents our little stove we miss a good deal I told you in my last of four of our boys deserting you need not tell any one / who they are they belong to our Company D two from Haddam and two from Cromwell James Conniff and Charles Lyman now dont mention it let some of the others spread the news they have been gone two weeks Jim has got a number of letters but where he is I dont know Charles Hubard has been playing the old boy he has got trusted about thirty Dollars to the sutlers stole seven dollars worth of tickets of our sutler and has got trusted by evry sutler in our brigade also every place we have stoped he has got trusted by the farmers telling them that they were for the Capt or Lieut and getting them under false pretense when we left Loudon Valley Charley was left behind his box come and he got it and with it a pair of pants that he bought of Jerry you might have seen them at Mrs Hubards and he went to Harpers ferry told them he was a Lieut got trusted for a military coat under the name of Lieut Baker also a pair of officers boots the boots cost ten dollars he came to Alexandria played the same game there got trusted to the amount of ten or twelve dollars and was taken by a warrant issued by the provost marshal by the warrant reads thus you will arrest a person in the convalescent camp a person calling himself Lieut Baker alias C T Hubard so they got him and he had to have his left hand chained to a musket for forty eight hours and go up and down past the guard house for getting the goods in Alexandria if they would serve him the same way in Harpers ferry he would pay well for it he sold his boots to get out of the scrape for three dollars and now the story is that he has got a discharge he is a coward any how never having done any duty since he enlisted the whole reg are down on him all this I can prove dont say a word about Jim or Lyman leaving for we feel bad we liked them verry much this ink is rebel also the inkstand it is one that I took out of a church where the negro in charge (as sexton) said they prayed for massa Jeff Davis the boys are all well Your son

George

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