1 1862
Camp Andy Johnson Tennessee March the 12th
Dear Brother
I now take this oppertunity to inform
you that I am well at Present hopeing that
these few lines may find you and all the Rest
of the folks in the same state of health we
are now laying about five miles south of
Nashville we got here on the 3rd Nashville is a
Purty Place and it has the appearance of being
a buissness Place at one time but Buisness
is suspended there now all the stores and Buis
ness shops are Closed and the City is diserted
of nearly all its inhabitants except the Ladys
and they are all secesh and wear a secesh flag
for Aprons and have a belt around their waists
with an Ivory handled Colts Ravolving Pistol of
the best quality sticking in it. Nashville and
all the surround County is secesh and they
dont try to hide it nether we was out on Picket
night afor last and towards morning about
time the moon went down the left end of our
[page 2]
2
Picket line was fired into by some Rebel Cavel
ry there was about 300 of them in all but they
stayed about 200 or 300 yards away from our
Picket line with the exception of 15 that dis
mounted and Came up to within hailing dist
ance of our Pickets they where 5 or 6 abrest as
we Could judge for it was dark and the
minute our Pickets Challenged
them they fired one volly and Retreated our
men fired on them whle they were Retreating but
with what Effect we Couldnt hear if there
was any of them hurt they was taking
along by their Comrades on our side there
was no body hurt but I must say they did
some tall shooting for random shooting
the only guide they had was the Direction the
Pickets voice Came and he came near being
Put out two balls struck the fence one each
side of him but Captain Philips made
the Narrowest Escape of all the uper band
of his sword scabard was shot off one shot grazing
the Back of his hand taking the skin of[f] a
about an inch another struck about the
[page 3]
3
Center of his scabard bending the sword &
scabard about 2 inches out of[f] Plumb while 3
Passed through his Coat tail the best Part
of them being Buckshot the Rebels Cartridges
have three Buckshot & one round Ball in them
they have attacked 3 times now the first they
attacked the 30th Ind out of our brigade – In station
ing the Pickets 4 goes on a Post 20 yards apart is the
General Rule but the Indianna Boys where
Placed about 50 yards apart and the Rebels
took advantage of the Distance and took 4
of them off their Post in Broad day light
and Caried them off as Prisoners and they aint
got Back yet either the way they managed to
do it there was about 25 of them (Cavelry)
road up within about 30 yards of the Pickets
taking care to keep behind a hill that the
Pickets Couldnt see them when one of them
dismound and to hide suspicion he had on
one of our uniforms on so he got to the Pickets
without much trouble and got talking them
awhile when he give a certain signal and as
quck as lightning the Rebels galloped up to
[page 4]
4
them draged them on the Horses and off
with them it was done so quick that the rest
of the Pickets didnt get a shot at them I tell
you they are as sharp as they make them these
days the next attack they made was on the
First wisconsin Killed 3 of their men wounded 3
and some of the 29th Indiana Boys took
one of them Prisoner he belonged to the
First Louisianna Cavelry he is a bold
looking fellow and he says he dont give a
damn wether school Keeps or not and
he says if they let him go he will fight
against the Union Troops as hard as ever he
says he wont be a Prisoner a month he would
be shot first. the next attack they made on
us the Perticulars of which I have stated on the
other Page this morning about 3 oclock there
was firing our Picket line again and a the
same Place we were fired on yesterday morning
But I didnt hear how they made out the 49th
Ohio Relieved us yesterday about 4 oclock in the
afternoon and they will be relieved by some
other Regt at the same time to day and I wont
Close this till I hear how the ohioians made out
with the secesh they ll be in about 4 oclock
But I dont think there was anything of any