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Regiment: 1st U.S. Volunteers Sharpshooters
Battles Mentioned: Yorktown, Virginia
Historical Figures: George B. McClellan, William F. Smith
Camp near Yorktown Apr 8th 1862
My Own Mary.
Sunday came and went this time
and you will never receive your
[ ? ] missing.
I have a reasonable excuse, as you shall hear.
Last
Friday morning at break of day we were on the march
for what we then supposed and what has since proved true
“The Battle Field of Yorktown.” The first day out just
after noon we came up to a fort some three miles
beyond Big Bethel which opened free upon as but only
for a few rounds and then with no effect they soon left
and we march throug and within six miles of Yorktown
that night making about eighteen miles travel. that distance
for an army makes tired men. At eight in the morning
of Saturday we were on the move again thing looked
squally and in less than an hour it commenced
raining. Co. ‘C’ 1st Reg. U.S.S.S. leading the column
we had to skirmish through the woods and swamp and
after going two miles if there was one day
[ ? ] in
the Co. there was not any more. we then gave way to an-
other Co. to skirmish getting into the road and advancing
slowly. we got up within a mile of the enemys guns
when boom. (just prolong the letter I a short time and
you will come near it) but a short distance over our heads
came our welcome to Yorktown in the shape of
a shell. Which burst perhaps thirty feet in our rear.
Still
we kept on our Co. taking the lead again and advancing
directly toward them and within eight hundred yards
of their of their old “thirty two.” As we got there the
Rhode Island Battery had just got ready to reply to
the Rebel guns but mistaking us for Rebel skirmishers they
threw some eight or ten shells at us. where we had taken
cover under a soil fine. We thought it pretty warm
[ ? ]
but stood ever ground between the fires of both friend
and foe. one man only was wounded. he was hit in the
knee by a piece of shell weighing at least a pound. no bones
were broken and he is getting over it fast.
[ ? ] Charles
credit is good and if I was any more conceited I would
feel proud of belonging to the Mich Co. of U.S.S.S.
After taking a good view we tried our Rifles
my first shot was at a horse carrying an officer.
he was walking quietly along. when I fired by the next
instant he was giving that place a wide berth more
scared than hast I suppose but I got the credit of
making a good shot. From that time for three
hours we kept a continual fire upon the Rebel gunners
and they did not fire but two or three shots. Every
time our guns cracked every one of them around the
gun we fired at would drop to the ground. Since
may have been killed we had no means of knowing
how many. Officers with glasses said we killed a large
number. Toward night Gen. Smith engaged the enemy on
our left and it has been reported quite a number were
killed and wounded. Four of our Reg. were killed and
four wounded. James May among this latter, a ball
in his right arm, just below the shoulder being about
as careful a shot as one need wish for.
The Rebels have
Sharp Shooters as well as we and the music of their
balls (though the proximity to ones self was some times
closer than wholesome.) had nothing very alarming about
them. after getting a little used to their whistle.
music of flying shell and cannon balls But the
music of flying shell and cannon balls I cannot
compare with any thing else under the range of my
observation.
Tuesday night at ten oclock we left the
ground we had held all day with some Infantry that
were drove back the next morning and came to our
present camp which is less than a miles from a battery
of the Rebels mounting forty guns. McClellan is here
and it is said he will be ready to commence the attack
in the morning, but it has been raining for the past
four and twenty hours. so I presume it will delay us
a day or two. We have ninety thousand troops and
five hundred pieces of artillery here. the Rebels are
reported as having forty thousand troops and a large
number of guns. Their retreat is said to be cut off
and a big fight will take place before this reaches you.
Sunday I could hardly move. Monday was but little
better today I fell partly well. and though I am not
spirting for a fight. I am anxious to have this over
The Battle of Yorktown fairly turned the scale in the
Revolutionary War. if this does the same in this war I
know of thousands that will rejoice even amid their
tears for the fallen slaves. I received yours of the 31st
yesterday. there has been quite a number of your letters
that have missed me. I am sorry for I have to leave the
best of live in that way.
[On Envelope:]
Wm Mitchell
Miss Mary J. Baxter
Grand Rapids
Michigan
Yorktown
