Fort Donoldson Tenn

Febr 17^th 1862

 

            Friend Henry

                                    I have got through one great battle safe, none of our band got killed, but the 11^th Regiment suffered heavy. Comp. D was with the battery of Capt Taylor of Chicago, therefore they suffered but little. Ely Andrews is lightly wounded, H. Dean is safe Blake also, Bill Dunn got wounded by a cannonball & has died since. Two or three of that company are wounded besides.

 

Comp. E suffered the most of any in the Regiment We found 61 dead men on the ground of our Reg. & some 10 or 15 have died since & there are more than 100 in the hospital now. We have been engaged burrying our boys yesterday & today & are not done now. We lost all our Regiment instruments, found some of them stamped to pieces 24 whole ones. But we gained the day & you will see by the papers, that the boys fought tremendous. A great many cellars in the town Dover are full of dead sesessionists. /

 

10,000 prisoners are taken and the fortifications are ours, over 100 pieces of artillery are also taken by our troops, but we had a hard time getting it. Ever since we left Birds Point, we have fared very hard, half the time without tents or blankets through rain, snow & ice, the weather has been very disagreeable for 2 weeks & it was really hard when all our men, wounded & well had to lay out all night, most of them without blankets.

 

I never want to go through such hardships again nor never do I want to see the horrible sights after such a battle again. As long as a battle last, you have no time to think, but when you see the dead & wounded laying on the field after the battle, then is the time when you feel. Baldwin was not here he was unwell at Fort Henry. I feel but very little like writing today therefore you must excuse me.

 

                                                                                                Yours A Dedrickson

 

It is said, that our regiment is going back to Birds Point to recruit, we have only about 160 well men in the Regiment.

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