Morganza, La. Oct. 2^d 1863.

 

                        My Dear Wife,

                                                When I last wrote to you Dave and myself belonged to a small detail of mounted infantry, which was camped out six miles west of this place with the 19^th Iowa and 26^th Ind. But since that time our camp and prospects have been sadly changed and now nearly all the high spirited and confident soldiers that occupied the camp on Sterling Sugar Plantation four days ago, are either dead, wounded, or prisoners in rebel hands. Dave, more fortunate than he might otherwise have been, I think, from all the information that I can get, is a prisoner. I will give you all the particulars of the disaster as far as I know them. Late in the evening of the 28^th ult., a detail of ten men and one Serg't. was called for from our squad to go down to the boats and guard the transportation of the 26^th Ind's. knapsacks out to the camp. I was detailed as the Serg't. but as Dave had just returned from a trip to the boats / he was not taken on this detail. We got to the boats about dark, camped there for the night and the next morning as soon as the baggage could be loaded we started back for camp. By the way I should have told you that a Lieut. was detailed to go with us, but when he got to the boats he found that a Capt's commission was there for him to go to New Orleans and take command of a Co. of niggers, consequently he was relieved from duty and I was left to command the guards. When we got out about five miles or within one mile of camp a squad of about thirty or forty rebel cavilry appeared in the road before us. I stopped the teams, and all of us dismounted, left our mules with three niggers to hold, deployed on each side of the road and advanced. The rebs then fell back about four or five hundred yards and all but about ten of them dismounted and crawled down into the fence corners amongst the weeds. We advanced and loaded and fired as fast as we could, but the rebs seemed less disposed to run than usual. I felt confident that if we were not able to disperse them, that we could hold them in check till Col. Leek could hear our fire and send us reinforcements. / Myself and five other men advanced up on the left side of the road under cover of the weeds and the fence, to within four double pannels of the fence corner where the advance of the rebs were lying, then halted and made the best use of our guns that we could and I assure you the butternuts were not slow in the use of theirs for they made the splinters fly off the rails mighty close to us sometimes and cut the weeds all around us. After we had fence whacked for about one half hour, fireing commenced between us and camp—pop, pop! and directly whole volleys were fired. This stimulated us to work faster thinking that the expected reinforcements would soon be to our relief. But when the cannons began to roar and the musket fire increase and get farther away, we knew that our camp was being attacked in force and that our situation was more precarious than we had anticipated.

 

            I knew that the rebs did not know the inferiority of our force or they would have charged and captured us, teams, knapsacks and all, so I thought I would try and keep them in ignorance long enough to save the baggage any how and ourselves too, if possible. / Accordingly I sent one man back to turn the teams and drive towards the boats as fast as possible, while we continued to fire if any difference faster than ever, till the teams had got about one mile to the rear, when we slipped back along the fence through the weeds till we got to a safe distance from where the rebs we left the rebs, then struck out into the road and doublequicked it on foot quite a distance where we found eight of our mules loose in the lane. The niggers had become alarmed and let all the mules loose except the ones they were on and "vamoused the ranch"

 

            We got ourselves and every thing we had in charge, to the boats in safety, but the fate of the 19^th Iowa, 26^th Ind., and a part of our little squad, is more disastrous. Late in the evening some rebel officers came in under flag of truce for the purpose of granting us the privilege of sending out a detail to bury our dead and bring in our wounded. This was good news for me, for I thought that I might possibly learn something deffinite from David. Before daylight the next morning all our wounded were on board the Iberville and when I went on board about the first one I saw was Wash M^cVey.

 

            He belonged to our squad of mounted infantry and was shot through the left thigh with a rifle ball very high up breaking the bone. I questioned him very closely about what he knew of Dave's fate. He said that in a minute or two after he was wounded (which was nearly at the close of the fight) the rebels charged on our boys and drove them back over the levee and that the last he saw of Dave, was in going over the levee. But our boys were not out of danger when they got over the levee for it was confirmed by all the wounded as well as Wash that the enemy was all arround them, as much on one side of the levee as the other. But as I said before, the fight did not last long after the charge and as I did not find David among the dead (and I saw all that our men found and buried) I come to the conclusion that he is almost certainly a prisoner and I hope he will soon be paroled so as to relieve us of all shade of doubt upon the subject. The rebels were about seven thousand strong while our force was not over five hundred.

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