June 1st 1862 [Sunday]. Camp Lovell, Va.
My Dear Father:
We are about 8 miles in a direct route from Richmond.
On May 28th we were turned out at 3 A.M., expecting to march across the Chickahominy River and bring on an engagement. We marched within half a mile of the river and halted. Laid 5 hours, went back and took another road to go up and support General Fitz-John Porter who was about twenty miles in a direct line towards Washington. Well, we marched fifteen miles and laid in the bushes all night.
We met about five hundred Rebel Prisoners coming in, of all grades, from a colonel to private. They were all dressed in dirty gray home spun. The only general way you could tell an officer from a private was their dirty black shoulder straps. The papers report that we took five hundred prisoners but I think we brought in more wounded Rebs than that. The next day we marched back to camp. I wish you would subscribe for either the Peninsula News or the Messenger for me immediately if you will. I’ll send you a dollar Milford bank note if it good. I had rather have the Messenger, I believe, but be sure and send me one or the other. What does the Delaware State Journal cost per year?
It is so very hot that I can’t write so I’ll close.
We are fighting all the time now from morning until night or rather, I can hear both cannon and musketry, but so far we have kept out of harm’s way.
Please write soon. Your son, Will
PS: I’ll send a treasury note, please subscribe for one Del. paper, so that I can get them regularly.
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