John Q. A. Johnson to Brother, 6 May 1863
Newbern May 6th 1863
Dear Brother
I received your letter of the 19th I also got one from Mother and Agnes I was happy to hear from you we have had another fight with the Rebs on the 28th of April about 9 miles from kinston on the railroad they were entrenched at what is called Dunn Crossing it lasted about an hour we chase them from thair entrenchments with a loss to us our side two killed and 6 wounded the 17th lost not an man the Regts engaged were the 17th Mass 45th and 58th PI we killed I should think / something like 10 Rebs [paper hole] wounded and took prisoner 20 more the 17th gets all the fighting to do and somebody else claims the praise I saw a letter in a Boston paper it was written by some lying fool that did not know the first thing about it these letters are written by men in the rear who are dependent on some one else for the facts and they tell them what they are a mind to we have been on three expeditions this month or rather in the month of April had a fight on two of them I think from / what I can gather that they have got the story around that we ran from the Rebs it would be a funny looking Reb Regt that the 17th would run from thare is not a smarter Regt in the service and the best of it is we never move [?]
[remainder of page missing]
end that our army and navy are putting the article right to them now and evrything goes to prove that they are about played out when they have to dig up our soldiers to get thair clothes and shoes they are hard pushed some folks reason in this way because they have held out longer than they expected they are going to stand it forever but thare must be end to everything earthly and I think thairs is close at hand secesion is one of the devils gettings up and / must like himself go back to its orignal Hell before I would see Jeff Davis hold the rains of goverment I should rather be shot a dozen times I dont know that I have anything more to write at this time give my love to all of the folks and write soon when you write tell me weather you have ever got you Bounty
Quincy
[upside down]
Quince
4089
DATABASE CONTENT
(4089) | DL1768 | 185 | Letters | 1863-05-06 |
Letter from John Q. A. Johnson, 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, May 6, 1863, to his brother; re: skirmishes, Dunn Crossing, Virginia
Tags: Clothing, Fighting, Jefferson Davis, Newspapers, Prisoners of War, Railroads, Secession
People - Records: 1
- (4379) [writer] ~ Johnson, John Quincy Adams
Places - Records: 1
- (428) [origination] ~ New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina
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SOURCES
John Q. A. Johnson to Brother, 6 May 1863, DL1768, Nau Collection