Bermuda Hundred Va

June 17. 1864.

 

I rec^d your letter dated the 12^th inst. but mailed the 13^th this A.M. It is the first one I have received since the 5^th inst. and I have rec^d very few papers since I have been here, 4 I think in all. I wish you would send the Ballot and Traveller every week if you send nothing else for though we can get New York papers nearly every day, we don't get any local news in them and they are not so interesting to us as a Boston or Exeter paper would be. You can write any day you have a mind to, as the mail comes in nearly every day, Yesterday and day before being the only two days that we have had no mail. the reason was said to have been that a pontoon bridge was across the James River. I am sorry about those stockings. the reason I sent them home was that I have no use for / them as I do not wear any in the summer, at least I have not since I have been in the Army. As I told you I put 17 cts worth of stamps on them, and how any Post-Master can charge so much postage I can't imagine. They were not sealed up so but what they could be seen, so there could not be any excuse for charging letter postage on them, but I should think they had charged double letter postage on them, as a man told me a few days ago that it only cost 39 cts to have a pair of boots sent to him. I should have sent them by express but the Chaplain told me that there was no chance to send that way. I think if the Post Master wont let you have them for 50 cents you can let them be, and see which will make the most out of it.

 

I have not seen Uncle Thomas since the time I wrote you about nor heard from him either. I have been very busy since then and perhaps he has been the same. We hear the gunboats shelling the Rebs. occasionally. Perhaps as we have moved our camp, he has not been able to find us. 

 

On the 8^th inst. we were ordered to fall in at 9 P.M. we fell in and then laid down and rested till about 11 P.M. when we got up and marched till daylight when we lay down and rested a short time; we were then on the south side of the Appomattox River having marched full twice as far as there was any need of. During the forenoon we marched somewhere in the neighborhood of Petersburg, but how near to that place I cannot say. The Tribune correspondent says Kautz's Cavalry went in to the place but owing to our not supporting them they could not stay there. I think likely he was right. About 3 P.M. we started to come back and about 9 P.M. we got into camp having rested a number of times, but we were very tired for all that, having been on the march for about 22 hours. About noon our Regt made a reconnaissance of a battery but came to the conclusion that it was rather too strong to be taken by a charge. / I suppose if it had not been quite so strong we should have had to charge on it.

 

Since then we have had our usual amount of picketing and sleeping in the trenches. Yesterday morning our folks found that the Rebs had evacuated most of their entrenchments in front of us, but it seems they did not go a great ways as some of them found to their cost. The Rebs charged down on our troops and drove them back. Our Regt. lost 35 in killed. Capts. Maxwell & Libby and Lieuts. Fredick & Coy are among the wounded. Capt. Libby severely in the groin. Co. "B" had but one man wounded, H. C. Hall of Fremont severely in the bowels.

 

I was not out; I was not very well when the last expedition started and have not been on duty but 3 days since.

 

Tell Aunt Harriet I forgot to mention the 19^th of May in my last though I thought of it when I commenced the letter. Respects to all relatives and friends who enquire for

                                                                                               

J. W. Clement

 

Mr. John Clement

            Exeter, N.H.                                       

 

Enclosed you will find an order for my July dividends

J.W.C.

 

[front top margin upside down]

 

I suppose you know that the biggest part of Grants Army is on the south side of the Appomattox River. The 6^th Corps was here to-day.

 

Mr Carver is getting better. The rest about as usual.

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