Pittsburgh Landing Tennessee River Tennessee April 20^th 1862

 

                        Friend William

                                                In acknowledgement of the receipt of your letter which I received last evening & also the paper you sent me I will now devote my leisure moments in answering it stating that I am well or at least better than I have been for some time & I hope these few lines will find you enjoying all the health & happiness a man can enjoy or at least more than us poor devils here enjoys or has enjoyed for the last two weeks for it has rained nearly all the time for two weeks & the mud is about up to our asses

 

                                                Well you can form some idea of how it would be after raining on a naturally soft soil for two weeks & the first week we lay out in the rain without tents for five nights & days but we have our tents now & get along a little better

 

                                                Well Will I suppose you have heard of the fight that we had at Pittsburgh & so there is no use of me going in to a detailed account of it for you probably have learnt more by the papers than I can tell you suffice it to say that it was the hardest Battle & the most lives lost of any Battle ever fought on the American continent the fight began on Sunday morning the Secesh attacted our men with about six to one & continued to drive ours back all day on Sunday but on Sunday night our / division got in we had been laying back from here fifteen miles & on Monday morning the fight commenced again but the Secesh fought like devils but our men stood their ground manfully & in the afternoon Buell's forces began to come in & then the tide of battle turned & we commenced to make them skadadle I tell you they got out of the way as fast as you generally see folks git out of the way I was with the Regiment till the enemy began their retreat & then in consequence of having been sick for a week before I gave out & had to lay down they went on a run & I could not keep up but I was bound to see the fight or at least go it as long as I could but I had better staid out they wanted me to stay out in the morning but I would not & the consequence was I lay in bed sick for a week afterward but I am better now & I think I will get along well enough there is a good many of our boys sick now we cannot muster more than fifty men out of ninety there is two or three that will hardly get well & I think they will be sent home

 

                                                But I begin to think that we will all be at home by the 4^th of July Some of the boys was fixing up the camp the other day & the colonel told them to fix it up right for he said it would be the last camp we would want till we would get back to Ohio & some of them asked him if we would not get our pay soon & he said we would not get any till we would get home he says we will be at home by the first of June & our commander in Chief General Halleck made a speech to his men & said he would have us all home by the first of June & there must be / some prospect of a settlement bettween the north & south or he would not talk the way he did we have not got any pay yet nor I dont care about any till we get home that is if we get home soon & I think we will be at home soon for we have been giving them Hail Collumbia lately we heard here that Richmond was taken we have all communication cut off bettween Beauregard & Davis & have Beauregard about surrounded they may fight us again but I think they will surrender without a fight or try & get away Well Will I have seen all the boys from about Richville Jake Martin Abe Ritter Alph Koontz Christ Stump & the blind fidler they are all well John Aker looks natural as ever Abe Ritter got slightly wounded in the leg in the fight but it is not of any account (they are all well) they are encamped about a mile from us

 

                                                You wanted to know whether John Shank & Perry Foltz had got back to the Regiment or not they have not come back nor never will I would not care about being in their places Eli Shutt is well Dan Switzer has not been very well for some time but he is not dangerously sick he has a bad cold & it is no wonder for laying out in the rain as long as we did would make the devil sick I would like to have been at the dance you had I almost envy you the pleasure you had but enjoy life will while you can I would like to be with you but us poor devils must take our pleasure out in wading mud to our asses we dont do any drilling as long as it is so muddy but we have guard / to stand & have to be out in the mud more or less evry day

 

                                                I want you to write immediately & give me all the news you can you must excuse this dirty paper it is the best I have it is some I took out of a Secesh knapsack after the fight & I suppose it is Secesh but you need not be afraid of it it will not hurt you do all you can for the girls till I come home & then I will help you give my respects to all the girls & to all the rest of the folks

 

            No more at present But remains with all due respect your friend

                                                                                                James D Lynch

 

P.S. Direct as before to

                                    James D Lynch

                                    Louisville Kentucky

                                    76 Regt O.V.U.S.A

                                    in care of Capt Briggs

 

and dont forget to write immediately to tell me all the news

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