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Letter from Charles Powell, Jr (Pendleton Co., Va) to Charles Powell, Sr. (Richmond, Va.)
13 May 1862
Powell Papers - 65 P875, Box III, Folder 1
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Pendleton Co Va
May 13th 1862
My Dear Father
I doubt very much
whether I will be able to
send this to you but I
will write and ask the Captain
to send it: I left Louisa
Co last Thursday for Jacksons
Army thinking that it
was in Staunton When
I got there I found that the
army had gone on toward
Western Virginia. So I started
out on a stage to catch it
I rode twenty mile, found
that Jackson was twenty
miles farther on and as
the stage would not
go any farther I started
[2]
to walk it, got my baggage
carried in wagon and
walked the next day twenty
miles where I found
the army wagons and
the next day walked
on and caught the
army. I do not know
yet whether I will be
able to get into the Rockbridge
Artillery or not. I think
it is very doubtful.
There are a great many
trying now to get in, and
the Company is full.
I think the army is now
on the march back to Staunton
so I will go along with it
for a while at any rate
and see what the chances
are. I am very well
and am in a mess with
Hugh McGuire, Bob See
[3]
and two others.
We have been following
the Yankees very fast for
three or four days. They
I understand had burnt
all their baggage and I
know destroyed a great deal of
ammunition. Day before
yesterday we exchanged a few
shots but the Battery was
not engaged, yesterday the
Enemy were heavily reinforced
so we had to take the back
track and I hope we will
go back to Staunton, If after
a few days I find that I
cannot join this Company
I think I will join the
Richmond Howitzers. I stand
the marching very well
do not find it as hard
as I expected. We have
no tents out here but
[4]
sleep very comfortly rolled
up in blankets and Overcoats.
I am sitting on a rock
writing on a tin cup.
I heard yesterday the first shell
whistling through the air, it fell
and burst about one hundred yards
from me, the sound it makes
going through the air is very
singular indeed. I did not
know what it was until it
burst. There was a battle
near McDowell in Highland
County the day before I got
there where we whipped the
Yankees but our loss was
very heavy. Jacksons Brigade
was not engaged. Love to
all when you write
Your devotedly attached son
C. L. Powell Jr