Click here for this soldier’s biography:
https://micivilwar.com/authors/benton-thomas-h/
Regiment: 19th Indiana Infantry
Battles Mentioned:
Historical Figures: Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson
Opposite Fredericksburg, Va. July 18th 1862
Dear Sister:
I received your letter this evening and was very much
pleased to hear from you. I hasten to answer your letter
for fear I shall not have another opportunity of doing so.
We are ready to march at any moment, and when we start this
time it is on to Richmond. Perhaps not many of us will live
to get there, but that is our destination, and nothing
short of death will stop us. Ella, I wish you would quit
asking me to come home. You know it is impossible
for me to do so at this time. Perhaps at the end of another
year I can do so.
I do not wish to be at home now. If I was there now it
would be only a source of annoyance to me to know that
almost all of the young men of my age were rallying under
the flag of their country, and I safe at home. You
must remember how many others were there are who have
brothers and fathers in the field. Every night when I lay
down, I expect to be wakened by the long roll and marched
out to meet the enemy. It is thought that
Jackson is marching to attack us, and we are prepared to
give him a warm reception. Last Sunday Jessie
Potts and I went out after blackberries and stopped at a
farmhouse where there were several young ladies, and
were treated very well. We stayed and took dinner with
them. Every few days I go out and get a bucket full of
blackberries, of which there are any quantity here. The
other day Sam and I were out, and while I was
throwing a stone very carelessly I happened to strike a
turkey, which made us a fine dinner. I heard that George
was married, but do not believe it. I know that he is in
the habit of falling in love with every new face that he
meets. But I do not think he is quite so foolish as to
deliberately commit suicide. John McCown stated so
in a letter to Sam. Tell mother I should like for her to
have some of the berries of which I have so plenty. There
was another one of our men drowned in the Rappahannock
River yesterday afternoon, and one who died this morning of
disease. Tell those young ladies if I cannot know who they
are, I can at least thank them very kindly for their well
wishes, and with them hope soon to be at home, but not
until the stars and stripes are floating in the place of
that emblem of a false nation, the stars and bars. Direct
to Co. B, 19th Ind., Washington, D.C., leave off in care of
C.W.W.D.
Your bro., T. H. Benton
