Cheat Mountain Summit November 15^th/61

           

Dear Brother

I recieved your kind letter of the 6^th & was verry glad as you must know to recieve it for a soldier is always a looking for something entertaining or comforting as he is far from home & friends to comfort him it is a hard life to live yiet i am as wel contented with it as a person can or could expect to be yiet the thoughts of home & kind friends to greet him on his return if such a thing should happen seems to stimulate him much anticipation sometimes acts the same as real yiet not in all cases the soldiers seem to think this the last place in the world & i have almost come to the conclusion that it is they all wish themselves out of it eaven the Officers we are upon the highest peak i think of Cheat Mountain ridge & the top of it is all cleared so the wind has a good chance at us The snow has fel about two inches deep & at three different times & we are stil living in our tents our quarters are not completed yiet & I think wil not be for two weaks to come We have a portable steem saw mill pretty near ready for operration. our buildings are 20 by 80 these are calculated to shelter a company of 88 men & in it are 6 fire places i am not allowed to tell you how manny regiments / I am not allowed to tell but of the Sesesh in the first camp there is seven & in the second there is four regiments. I had just returned from a two days trip around thair camp when i recieved your letter which i recieved last night about eight oclock I started day before yiesterday morning early & went within half a mile of greenbrier bridge after examining the situation of the pickets i went up the river about the same distance & forded it being about knee deep the camp lays about four miles from this river but crossing the mountains through the woods which ware six in number made it much farther the Generel seems to place much confidenc in me the the second time that i went as a spy he wanted to know my name where my parents lived what company i was in & everry thing of importance concerning me. The laural for about a quarter of a mile from the river was so thick i had to crawl on my hands & knees to get through it i layed so that night within a short distance of their camp in the morning before day brake i started out to reexamine their encampment situation of guns situation of their guns entrenchments & a place to put ours to have a bearing upon their camp & entrenchments & I found a verry favorable position within about a quarter of a mile of their entrenchments the night before the Generel sent out a regiment to surprise their camp & wished me to see what / affect it had upon them but they had had their pickets driven in so much they have got use to it i went so near the camp that i could hear them talk sing & whistle play the violin count their cattle horses wagons regiments see their camp fires hear them chop their wood &c. &c. On my return i found the river swolen waste deep & i discovered a little or small farm in the woods where they grazed horses there were thirty six of them it rained twenty five hours of the time which made it rather disageable i went up so near the pickets that i spoke to them but they would not talk much. The Gen was verry much pleased with the trip.

 

I am under manny obligations to you for sending me those stamps i shal enclose a dollar or more if i can get bills i have some money which i have made since i came into the service by peddling bread but it is in gold i must tell you how i worked it I would buy some coffe of the boys which they would not use & take it out to the farmers which are verry few & trade it off for bread bring it in and sell it to boys in other regiments who had drawn their wages for the money. in this way i have made over six dollars i did not pay the postage them letters because they would been franked the same acording to the boys / stories i wish you would send me a few stamps occasionly & keep the rest to yourself & please write as often as you can & give me all the information you can tell me how near you have got the house done how much you have cleared How Mr Corbin & people get along espesially Adaliza & who lives on Thomas Sheperds place i liked the last letter you wrote first best it was a good long one gave me more information if i think than eney of the rest Tell me what Mother is a doing whether she is a darning stockings or a getting dinner or supper I you better guess i would like to take supper with you all some of these times & have some of Mothers warm biscuit Whew wouldent they go nice I think i shal see that place sometime althoug i may not stay long My health has been good so far & i hope it wil continue on for within the last two weaks there has been over one hundred more persons on the sick list than has been before since their regiments were mustered into service we are expecting a fight soon. it has snowed a considerable to day it is pretty cold weather You will find Isac Wilson a hard customer as i have told you before this i could shoot such a man sooner than i would one of these Rebbels over here in this camp i am mistaken /

 

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about wages get the same as privates

 

please write soon as you recieve this so no more at preasant

                                                           

From your affectionate

& kind brother

W^m H Peck

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