U.S. Sanitary Commission,

                                                                                                            Monday July 4^th 1864

 

            Dear Mamie

                                    I have this morning received a kind & affectionate letter from you of the 26^th I had been expecting it for a day or two or I should have written sooner. Since I wrote you last nothing uncomon has occured with us We have had two men wounded by bullets. Andrew Allen & John Button neither of them wounded dangerously the first in the wrist & the other through both hands. Our duty has been the same. Two days in the trenches & two days out to rest but all the time under fire Thursday afternoon last we were under the hardest Artillery fire that we were ever subjected to The Rebs. opened on our line with about 30 pieces of Artillery which was so placed across the river that they raked lengthwise of our line. But we were tolerably well protected by traverses Still it was teriffic. There was a constant roar & the air was full of all kind of missels Shot shell & Grape a solid shot would come striking the Bank & covering with dirt & the a shell would explode/close by & send the pieces humming all around us but leaving Co. “G.” unharmed The fire continued about 1 1/2 hours all the time the men stood bravely up to the works expecting an attack. But after they stopped things resumed their usual course which is firing between the pickets & Sharpshooters with a shell now & then from the Mortars on either side. The became insignificant after the hot artillery fire Other Companies did not fare as well & “G.” during that fire there was one noble fellow mortaly wounded in the Co. next on our right Corp Carver He is the man that has mached next to me all the way he being on the left of his Co. & I on the right of our Once before when we were moving up a road away from our works the Rebs could see us and they fired an occasional shot I was looking around & one came striking him on the back of the head & I supposed killing him but it turned out that it only stuned him. I bathed his head. He went to the Hospital but came back well in a day or two well & now poor fellow his body is covered by the “sacred” soil. A piece of shell about as large as my hand struck him in the back injuring him internaly During the Canonading we lost 8 out of the Regt 2 killed One shell killed two & wounded 4 all of Co E except one We came in  the trenches last night before last A great many have been looking forward to to day expecting something great would be done seeing that last year Vicksburg surrendered on the fourth. But thus far to day it has been unusualy quiet last night they shelled us quite vigorously but without any loss on our side A few nights ago it was ordered for our Brigade to make a charge but we got out of it by being divided some in the trenches & some to the rear. We begin to experience some of the benefits of the Sanitary Commission We get of them canned Tommatoes & Pickels &c—When you write next please tell if Mrs Dunham heard from John get all the particulars concerning him & the other boys Court

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