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West Point May 10 th 1862
Dear Mother
I have not heard from you yet but shall continue to write once a week as
long as I am able to do so. Time gets away so fast that I can hardly keep
track of the weeks to say nothing about the days. There was quite a heavy
battle at Williamsburg last monday, we could hear the guns all day and
expected to be called upon all day but did not go, had just got nicely to
bed when the order came to fall in for a fight. That means with only
haversack and canteen on. It came rather tough for the rain was pouring
down in torrents but the regiment has not turned out so many men at one
time since we left Washington as it did that night. We were formed in line
in five minutes from the time we were called which is called pretty good
time for a regiment to get out in. We stood in the rain about fifteen
minutes and got pretty well soaked and then we were ordered back to our
tents to await orders, did not have to come out again that night and have
had a pleasant time since. Spent two days in Yorktown looking things over.
I think if the rebels will leave such a place as that is that they can not
make a stand any where. We went aboard the boat at dark and in the morning
we woke up and found ourselves at West Point. There had been quite a
skirmish here a day or two before we got here, and some fifty or sixty of
our men killed. They were just burying the dead as we landed. It looks
rather hard to see them put in trenches without any coffin but I suppose it
is just as well so as any way. I have talked with a number of wounded men
that were in the fight and they say that the niggers are the worst men in
the rebel army. They cut two or three of our mens throats after they were
wounded from ear to ear. The pickets have orders now to shoot every nigger
they see outside of the lines. I think the order will be obeyed too the
mark. Every man here swears vengeance on the black devils. When we were
lying before Yorktown Porters divission had all the work to do becaus they
were in the advance. Now some other divission has taken the head and we are
held in reserve for which I am not verry sorry. We are encamped now in a
large wheat field of about fifty acres. The wheat is about four inches
high. It seems to bad to tread it down but it has no bussiness to be Secesh.
We have had our Sharps rifles nearly a week now. The are the most beautiful
piece I ever saw. They are shure of a rebel anytime at half a mile. There
is not much more that I can think of to write about now, as soon as I get
to Richmond I will write again would like to hear from you before I start.
Your aff Son
C J Hardaway
Historical Notes
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