Bristo Station Va James w overcash
aug 21 1861 Company G 6 inf
NCST
Dear father I now take the opportunity
to write you a few lines to let you no that
I am well at this time and hoping if theas
lines come to hand they may find you all enjoying
the same blessing their is a g[r]ate deal of sickness heir
now Eli upright and Davie Sloop is very bad off [1]
with the mesils Eli is geting beter I had a lite tetch
of them Charl Atwell has got well of them I [2]
do not believe that their is 200 men in the regiment
that is well but i think they are improveing
they are none of them that is very
this is a hard place to bee sick at it is a bad
place for a well man two if wee have any thing
that is fit to eat wee eat it and if we have itdo with out
when we was trave ling we sufferd very
[???] their was for about two weeks that we
had scarcely any thin at all when we left
Ralleigh we had tow or three biskets of
our one baking you may no they was not good
we went on to ptersburg that knight their we
had to li down on a brick flour with out any
[??] ly on our blankets was on another train
and we could not get them the lot that mine
was in was broke open and my blanket and
hat was took our i got another one at Richmond
when we got their it is no use to tel you of
every litl crook and turn we had nothin fowr or five
days before the battle and we never will get
over the raises across the mountains from
strawsburg to winchester then to then across
the blue ridg to peadmont Station whair we
took the train for manassas turn over [3]
[page 2]
we got their soon the next moning the fitin
had commenced their was no time for geting
breacfast we had not had any thing two or three
days and run down be sides and could not get
eaven water to drink then we started to the
battle field we got to a spring whair some of the
cmpanys got water but we got non we then
was marched on we come to an old branch
whair we just broke out of ranks and got some
water that was thick with mud but we
drunk of it like it was good the old cannon
was roar ing lounder and louder we was haulted
and orderd to load then we was orderd to
rest we stayed their for about ahalf an our
we then was marched on a peac firther whair
we was haulted by some larg trees whair we
waited for other orders while we was stand tair
that slug past over my head it would not have
past over if ihad stood still it scaired us all
worse than any thing els they was caring the wounded
and dead out by us and and some of them
would say that they was giveing us hell
and some would say that they was whiping us
non of them give us any encouragment atall
they had bin againing the day al the time
when we was up they was their just ready
to [??]t us down the kind hand of procidenc
was their and we was seved it dos seem
the balls did not miss me two inches I hope
we wl never se sutch a time a gain but
it may come soone and may not come at al
we have al got enough of it for this time 20x
[page 3]
August the 26th 1861
Dear father I now take my pen in
hand to informe you that I am well
at this time and hoping if these
lines come to hand they may find you
all well I received your [??] the 21st and was
very to hear that you was all well and
that you was making a beter crop of corn
than you have for a fiuew years we have
a grate deal of raine for the last three or
four weeks it is very disagreeabel hier
our tents leaks when it raines hard we have
to pile our truck up in the middle and
sit on them till it is over
you wanted to no whether our Regiment took
Shearmans battery or not it had bin took
once before we went up but they got
it back our regiment then come ine
(then) they fired on us so that we was bound
to retreat back in to the woods you never
can have an idea what a fix we was in
all Scatterd among other men we did
not no wheather they was yankeys or not
i did not see a half a dozen of our
then and the ball flying around
me as think hail in at time of a storme
I thought i would hunt up our company
and i come up with Dancy and he wanted me
to help him which i did their was
mor than me that did not get to fire on them
their was some 2 or 3 companys that never
fierd a gun about half of the Regiment
formed then and Charged on the battery
and took it and hild it turne over
[page 4]
Manassas Junction va August th [?]

The yankeys tried to take it back
again but they failed in that and
then they left as fast as possoble our artillary
Cavelry and Infantry then pored it in
to them ha[??]r than ever they run aroun
the hill and crost two fences some was kild
with their fee[t] in in the cracks of the fence
Some on top some fell on one side and
some on the other some of them them lay
their four or five days they then took some
of the prisoners they had at the junction and
mad them dig a little trench and role them
in and threw a fiew Shoveels fll of dirt
on them as soon as it rained on them it
washd the dirt off them our men are goin
over their every day or so and bringing with
them of their their is severel
Sculls in the camp now
you want to no the truth about Amos Corrher [4]
Jake Amos was shot threw the both thighs
and then threw the rite arm passing threw
his body just a bove the hart as for the Chain
balls they was not their that day if they
had any they shourley would have used them
Jacob was shot slightley threw the thigh and [5]
an then he was shot rite threw the head
Just a bove the ears tering his head up very mutch
I want you to writ to me every week their is so
many of you that some one mite writ one
every week if you knew what a satis faction
it gives mee you would writ yours respefully
J W overcash Bristo Station va this is the
nearest Post offic Company G.. 6th Inf NCST