New Market Va Octo 24th 1864
Dear Wife
With Extreem pleasure I seat
myself to respound to your kind favor of the
10th inst which has come duly to had I am
glad indeed to hear that you are all still
in the land among the living and doing
as well as what you are I trust the Blessing
of good helth may continue with you all
this leaves myself and Brothers all well
as could be Expectid Jowl has returned to his
company he came in on the 21st inst he appears
to be tolerable well again only he has a very
bad cough and complains of feeling a little
weak and not well able to undergo the hard
ships of a soldiers life I think he would soon
recover hi[s] strenth if we could only get Enough
to Eate but our Rashon is still very short
My Dear in my last address to you bearing
date of 17th inst it was my painfull duty
to try to describe to you the horor of another Battle
which our friend had bin ingaged in on
the 13th and the sad results which followed
it but it now becomes my duty to try to give
you a slight description of a much greater Battle
[page 2]
which we have bin deeply ingaged in
it taken place on the 19th inst the night of the
[Battle of Cedar Creek, much of the
description of the battle appears to have
been copied from a newspaper account]
18th we received orders to be redy to march Next
morning at day light if not before we ware then
6 Mile from the Enema Brest works that night
at 11 Oclock we ware ordered to fall in line of
March Genl Earlys whole force ware now put
in secret motion tha marched for the Enemy
camp at this unexpected hour flanking
them on the right and left also making
the attact in front this moove was success
fully accomplished. Just at the Breake
of day the Bawl was opened voley after
voley ware poured into their camps from
Evry quarter tha riseing from their beds runing
in Evry direction some in their drawers not
having time to put on their pants our men
continued to charge them taking Brest worke
after Brest worke tha of corse fighting the Best
tha could we drove them Back some 5 or 6 Miles
tha leaving all their camp Equipage Horses and
Mules Wagons ambulances tents Oil cloths cracker [B?]
amd Evry thing that Belong to to their camp with
Some 30 pieces of artillry the firing was continuous
untill near 12 Oclock when out men had haulted Evrything
[page 3]
appeared quiet with the Exception of occasional
canonading untill about 3 oclock in the Evning
when the Enemy was reinforced heavily tha
made a heavy charge upon our lines which caused
our left to give way which was [????] by
Earley old trups Kershaws Division held the
right untill after the left give way then the
Enemy had the right flanked completely
our Division had to git out the best way tha
could. Rachael I tell you it was the greatist
confusion I Ever saw a perfect stampeed
I ware at the infurmery attending to the
woundid we had to leave severl of our
woundid and run to save ourselfs I came
Verry near being captured one minuet more
would have carried me up the spout I had to
dubble quick the best I could for about 3 Miles
with Isaac Readmen and he badly woundid
in the neck an shoulder I told him to hold
on to me and I would carry him out if I
could he [????????????????????] wee [ink very faded]
kept double quicken as hard as we could and [????]
made out to make our escape severl was captured
that started with us it was then dark we contin
ued to Retreat in confusion all that night
[page 4]
Next morning at sunrise I ware 24 Miles
from the Battle field you may gess how
we traveled all that night I Brought
Isaac Redman ten miles to a little town called
Woodstock thair I left him in the Hospitol
and percedid my journey to this place the
Enemy did not pursue us Eney father than fishers
hill the most of our men scatured in confusion
in the mountains tha are coming in day[?] Ever sience
our looss is not as great as we at first Expectid the
E[nemy?] loos is heavy in killed and woundid we
taken some three thousend prisners I saw them
myself and 18 pieces of artilry but the Enemy
recaptured nearly all of the artilery back and some
of ours we doe not yet no the Exact looss of men
on our side but dont think it will amount to more
then one thousand the looss of the 20th Regt is 11
killed and one hundred and twenty missing
Col Boykin and Lieut Col McMichael is among
the Missing capt W[oo?]den was killed dead on the
field their was no one killed in comp D that
we no of but [severl?] missing I will give you the
names of the missing John North T W Murph
E Furtick A Redman J.N. Reese J Cullen D. V. [???]