Bivouac of 21^st C.V.

                                                                                                                        May 17^th 1864

 

Dear Mamie

                        I wrote you last from Portsmouth should have written you since but have had no chance. We left Portsmouth the 9^th Come up the James River & landed where the rest of the troops did at Bermuda Hundred marched to Gen Butler’s Hdqtrs. where we were assigned to duty as Body Guard for Gen Butler remained there till the 13^th when we were ordered to the front took our position on the Richmond & Petersburg R.R. as a reserve lay there till Sunday morning 2 oclock when we were ordered to move to up to the right/

 

We took the turnpike road that runs from P— to R— & moved up to a point about 9 miles from Richmond where our force was held in check by the Rebels they having fortified themselves At this point they had a large fort but our men lay up so close to it that they shot the men away from their Guns as fast as they attempted to load them. We lay back a short distance from the front till about Sunsett Sunday night when we were ordered up to relieve the 25^th Mass. Their position was right in front of the fort & not more than 20 rods from it. After relieving them we were alarmed once or twice during the night/but nothing resulted from it about 4 oclock in the morning Co. “G.” was ordered to the front as skirmishers & Picket we depoyed and moved up to within a half a dozen rod of the fort There was a dense fog so that you could not see 5 feet in front we had lain there but a few minuets when a brisk fire opened on our right I with 3 others was on the right of our Co under cover of some pine boughs. We “smelt a mice” by the sharp firing in front of us but directly some of our men fired his Gun & there was more than an hundred shots fired in return for in/the dense wood fog they had moved up almost on to us we opened fire upon them & they charged on us I told the boys I thought it was about time to fall back but to do that now was very dangerous we started on the run back & about this time they opened fire from the fort with Shell & Grape & Canister & we were about the same as at the muzzle of the guns. There are quite a number of the men that never got back to the line. In falling back I moved to far to the right & fell in with the 8^th Maine & staid there till I fired away my amunition & then they commenced to fall back as soon as we got back out of the woods I joined what was left of our Co. We had then been under the most galling fire that men ever stood up under 4 1/2 hours The way we got drove was they turned our right flank & poured in a cross fire upon beside us they had two men to our one/

 

The whole force had at ten oclock fell back and formed a line of battle about three fourths of a mile of our first position we lay there till about sunsett when we all fell back the now glorious 21^st with one or two other regiments covering the retreat J

 

the fall in drum has beat we have got to move * * We have now halted to rest & I will finish we moved this morning to take our place/inside the fortifications. I did not not tell you that last night we fell back to our fortifications. We are waiting for them to attack us here & we will whip them. We had in our Co. yesterday 3 that we know were wounded & 12 missing among those a large proportion were taken prisoners John Brown is all right as are all the Shunoc boys except John Dunham he is among the missing probably taken prisoner for he never came in from the front It will take several days to tell any thing about it We came out of the fight with only 18 men now we have 82. Thank God I am all right Dont you or mother worry to much about me God bless you both. Pray for me

Good bye                                            Court

 

[margin note to John Dunham: tell his folks as soon as possible]

SOURCES