My Dear Wife
We left camp near Richmond yesterday morning about 7 o’clock and arrived at this place about 3 in the afternoon. It rained all day long and some of the time very hard. I was no to the skin when we got into camp but a soldier must not mind a little rain. It was very hard marching for the roads out here are very muddy when it rains and if the roads were not macadamized¹ it would be almost impossible to travel them. We shall not stop here long perhaps not more than three or four days. We are encamped about 13 miles from Richmond on the road to Lancaster. I got a letter from you just before leaving camp and I was very glad to hear that my check had gone through. Before writing we expected to start in an hour or two but we waited until the next morning. I am on picket a short distance from camp on the banks of the creek. The boys are in swimming and I am going in myself and have a good wash for I am getting dirty. I want you to save all the money you can for it is earned if any money ever was. I have no doubt you will do so without my cautioning you. It is very warm today but I suppose it will be much warmer before July and we shall probably have to march a great many miles yet but it is nothing more than I expected when I came out here. We shall, as near as I can learn, go from this place to Columbia and how much farther I don’t know. The 3rd Division which belongs to this camp is coming on here. They will make quite an addition to our army. They went to Suffolk from Newport News about 2 weeks before we left there. There is so much noise here that it is almost impossible for me to write. The creek is full of soldiers and has been all day. I don’t know as you will be able to read this letter for I have written on the wrong page after I finished the first, but you will see my mistake and I guess you will be able to make it out. Hooker’s army² I hear has crossed the Ranahanock³ but we have not heard anything definite about it. I suppose there has been a great battle there. You have probably heard more about it than I have. I wish I was with you today but it is of no use to wish, but the time is passing away slowly when I hope I shall see home and you once more.
Footnotes
- Macadamize – according to Webster – Definition of macadamize. transitive verb. : to construct or finish (a road) by compacting into a solid mass a layer of small broken stone on a convex well-drained roadbed and using a binder (such as cement or asphalt) for the mass.
- General Joseph Hooker appointed by President Lincoln to lead the Army of the Potomac. //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hooker
- Ranahanock River – 1863 saw several major battles along this river. Details of battles are in the Library of Congress under a search of Ranahanock River.
