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Cumberland Landing
on Pamunkey River
12 miles from West Point,
May 16[struck-through] 17, 1862
Dear Mary,
My hurried note to you some
four or five days ago was so short that
I cannot call it a letter, & will now
try to write one more worthy of the name.
We are now on the Pamunkey R., a tributary
of the York, and are about 25 to 30 miles
from Richmond. There is a house or two at
the landing, & the river is crowded with
steamers, sailing vessels, & transports, of all
sized and descriptions, from a canal-boat
to a six-gun propeller.
You already know that we have been
in a battle, & a pretty severe one at that.
We had marched from Yorktown on the 4th,
and at 2 a.m. on the 5th a Virginia
drizzle set in, through which we marched
until about 3 P.M., when we came to a
point 3 miles below Williamsburg. We
dropped our knapsacks there, & in obedience
to orders from Gen Heintzelman, ran the
