On Picket Six Miles West of Alexandria

We left camp yesterday morning at 8 o’clock to be gone until tomorrow afternoon for picket duty. One of our lieutenants was fired upon last evening and today we are ordered ———- any attack that may be made on our line of pickets but you must not give yourself any uneasiness for there is large force of rebels within thirty miles of us and there is at least three thousand men within one mile of as ready at a moment’s warning. I am well and rugged and I hope that you are the same. It is not certain whether we will stay where we are camped or not. Our army is making an advance on Richmond and if Richmond is taken we shall probably be sent forward to garrison places that our army occupies on their advance. All of our men fell into line promptly this morning when this report came that our pickets were fired upon. For my part I never felt cooler in my life. It is very pleasant here today. The nights are cold as a general thing, some however are warm. I have had some persimmons today that we found on some trees near our place of Rendezvous. The fruit is as sweet as honey and yellow as gold. You may expect steering news from our army soon. Our army will winter in Richmond if all reports are true and before our nine months are up this rebellion will be knocked higher than a kite. I want you to send me two dollars for I am all out of money and when we go out on Picket duty we have nothing but hard bread to eat and it goes rather tuff. We expect to have a month’s pay soon and I shall send the greater part of it home. I am very glad to hear that you received those checks for I was afraid you would not get them. Tell Alfred¹ that I am going to write her a letter as soon as I get an opportunity. Tell him if he wants to make money to come out here and set up a —-others stand and he can make all the money he wants. If I was out of the service and had a small capital I could make one hundred dollars a month, but I am in for nine months. Anyhow so it is no use in speculating. There is one regiment encamped by the side of us (the 18th Conn.) and about half of the men are sick or unfit for duty, but our men are all with a very few exceptions well. It is one of the prettiest places in the world where we have our Battalion drill. It is on a plain where McClellan had his grand review of the Army of the Potomac. It is surrounded by breastworks (or nearly) with Washington and the surrounding country in full view with Fort Ward and Blenker on our right and Fort Worth on our left with Munson’s Hill and the encampments on our rear. In the distance can be seen the rear guard of Sigel‘s army encamped nearly eight miles from us, presenting altogether a scene never to be forgotten. The excitement is all over and nobody is hurt. We have been on duty all day ready to fall in at a moment’s warning but everything is all quiet again. We are posted abort 80 rods from the road that leads to Bull Run. We went up to a house last evening and got some milk and had a long talk with that man that lived there but when we got back to our camp this afternoon we found that the man had been arrested and taken to Washington for what reason I have not learned. I do wish I could see you and Father² and Mother³ but the more I think of home the more I want to be there so I keep my mind occupied with other things as much as possible. Tell Julia I wish I could have had some of her boiled dinner. It made mouth water to think of it but I don’t know if I could sit down to a table to eat. I believe it would seem awkward enough. Today I have seen more than 500 head of cattle bound for Burnside‘s army. We have meat enough to eat but some of it is so poor that I can’t eat it. Our cooks are the poorest ones in the company, but I manage to get along some way. I hardly know how myself but as Preston Hopkins says I must forbear it. It is almost dark and I shall have to walk my beat. Tell Theodore that I will write to him before long, so good bye for this time. Now don’t neglect writing often.

From your ever loving Husband

Ezra

Footnotes
¹Alfred Burgess (1827-1897), brother-in-law
²Cyril Rounds (1795-1881)
³Elizabeth Rounds (b.1841)

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