Camp Near Fredericksburg Va

Nov^r 24^th 1862

 

Miss M. J. Smith

                                   

My Dear Sister:

                   As Uncle Mac leaves here for home today I will write you a few lines and send by him. We left our former camp near Culpeper C.H. last tuesday 18^th and reached this place thursday night after some pretty hard marching. It had been raining slowly for a day or two before we left Culpeper and continued to sprinkle as we marched along to this place until Thursday when it poured. I got as wet as a drowned rat and stayed so all that night as it did not quit raining. I did lie down and try to sleep the first part of that night but could not & got up and went to a fire and sat up all night. On friday night our Brigade was sent on Picket in Fredericksburg. We did not leave camp till after dark as we did not want the Yanks to see us as we went. We came back off picket last night. We are camped about two miles from the town which is a very pretty place. The Rappahannock river runs by the town and we are on our side of it and the Yanks on the other. Our pickets and the Yankee pickets face each other upon opposite banks of the river which is about one hundred yards wide. There seems to be a sort of a tacit understanding that the pickets will not fire at each other. A great many persons have left the town expecting / the Yankees to shell it. It was reported that the Yanks had demanded the surrender of the town and had threatened that if it was not surrendered they would commence shelling the town by 9 a.m. Saturday. Be this as it may they have not commenced shelling the place yet.

 

            The weather is now fair and cold. I hope we will have no more wet weather soon.

 

            My health is pretty good now except a cold. Some of the Company are sick. John Gunter and Nath Alford have been pretty unwell for several days but Gunter is the sicker man.

 

            Things seem to be quiet at this time. How long they will remain so I am not able to say. In a very short time we may have to fight the enemy here or march to some other place to fight.

                                                                                   

Write soon and let me know how things are getting on at home. Give my respects to the neighbors and my friends.

                                                                                   

Your Aff^t Brother

John W. Smith

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