October 14. Camp Tompkins, General Rosecrans’ Headquarters, near Gauley Bridge. – I came down here to hold court today. Left my regiment about eight miles up the pike. Mrs. Tompkins lives here in a fine large white house. Her husband, a graduate of West Point, is a colonel in the secession army. Why devastate the [...]

October 12. At Camp Ewing. – Rode down to Hawk’s Nest with General Schenck and Colonel Scammon and Lieutenant Chesebrough; a most romantic spot. A cliff seven hundred feet perpendicular projects out over New River; a view of New River for a mile or two above and below the cliff, rushing and foaming between the [...]

October 11, Camp Ewing. – Wet, cold. We hear of enemy back at Camp Lookout and rumors of, over New River. On this road are many deserted homes – great Virginia taverns wasted. The people are for the most part a helpless and harmless race. Some Massachusetts people have come in and made pleasant homes. [...]

October 10, Camp Ewing, seven miles above Gauley Bridge. – A pretty day in a pleasant camp, surrounded by mountain scenery. We had a false alarm in Camp Lookout; formed in line of battle. I was at the hospital but rode rapidly up and was on hand before the line was ready. Some men at [...]

Camp Ewing, Mountain Cove, Six Miles Above Gauley Bridge, Wednesday, October 9, 1861. Dearest: – Captain Zimmerman and I have just returned from a long stroll up a most romantic mountain gorge with its rushing mountain stream. A lovely October sun, bright and genial, but not at all oppressive. We found the scattered fragments of [...]

Headquarters 23d Reg’t., O. V. Inf., U. S. A., Mountain Cove, Six Miles Above Gauley Bridge, October 9, 1861. Dear Brother: – We are now near or at the point where an entrenched camp for winter quarters is to be established. It will command the main entrance to the head of the Kanawha Valley, and [...]

Tuesday morning, 6 A. M., October 8. Your election day. Dearest : – This wet dirty letter and its writer have had considerable experience in the last twenty-four hours, and since the above was written. In the first place we have had another bitter storm, and this cold raw morning we shiver unless near the [...]

Camp Lookout, Monday, October 7, 1861. Dearest:—The mails are in order again. Letters will now come promptly. On the day after I wrote you last we got all the back letters – lots of papers and dates up to October 1. One queer thing, a letter from Platt of July 31 and one from Mother [...]

  Up Gauley River, Camp Sewell, October 3, 1861. Dear Uncle: – I should have written you, if I had known where you were. We are in the presence of a large force of the enemy, much stronger than we are, but the mud and floods have pretty much ended this campaign. Both the enemy [...]

Camp Sewell, October 3, 1861. Dearest: – This is a pleasant morning. I yesterday finished the work of a court-martial here; am now in my own tent with my regiment “at home.” It does seem like home. I have washed and dressed myself, and having nothing to do I hope to be able today to [...]

Camp Sewell, October 1, 1861. – About a week ago I left Camp Scott, or Cross Lanes, and came over to General Cox’s camp on the top of Sewell Mountain. Our Secesh friends are fortifying in sight. I staid with McCook. General Cox is an even-tempered man of sound judgment, much loved by his men. [...]

Sewell Mountain, September 29, 1861. Dearest L –: – A beautiful bright Sunday morning after a cold, bitter, dismal storm of three days. It finds me in perfect health, although many a poor fellow has succumbed to the weather. The bearer of this goes home sick – a gentlemanly German. I am still living with [...]

Sewell Mountain, General Cox’s Camp, September 27 (Saturday or Friday, I am told), 1861. Dear L –: – We are in the midst of a very cold rain-storm; not farther south than Lexington or Danville and on the top of a high hill or small mountain. Rain for fifteen hours; getting colder and colder, and [...]

Mt. Sewell on Pike from Lewisburg down Gauley And Kanawha Rivers, Thirty Miles From Lewisburg, Camp Sewell, September 25, 1861. Dear L–: – I am now in General Cox’s camp, twenty-five miles from the Carnifax Ferry. The regiment is back about twenty miles. I am here as J. A. [judge-advocate]. Came over yesterday. This camp [...]

September 22. Sunday. – Cold, raw, and damp – probably will rain. I must get two flannel or thick shirts with collars, also one or two pairs of thick gloves.

Cross Lanes, Virginia, September 22, [1861]. Sunday morning, before breakfast. Dearest: – It is a cold, drizzly, suicidal morning. The equinoctial seems to be a severe storm. Part of our force has crossed [the] Gauley to operate in conjunction with General Cox who is near us. The enemy have retreated in a broken and disheartened [...]

Cross Lanes, Virginia, Sunday, September 22, 1861. Dear Mother : – … We are waiting for good weather to go in pursuit of the enemy. Unless some calamity occurs to us at Washington, so as to enable the Rebels to reinforce Wise and Floyd, I do not think they will fight us again. We shall [...]

September 21, 1861. – Equinoctial storm today. Our regiment does not move. I am getting ready for my new quarters and duties. Just got ready for bed; a dark, dismal, rainy night. Visited the hospital tonight. Saw several of Colonel Tyler’s men who were wounded and taken prisoners in his surprise a month ago and [...]

September 20.– I am ordered to the place of judge-advocate and to be attached to headquarters. I dislike the service but must obey, of course. I hope to be released after a few weeks’ service. In the meantime I will try to qualify myself for an efficient discharge of my new duties. I agree with [...]

Cross Lanes, Near Gauley River, South of Summersville, Virginia, September 19, 1861. Dear Mother:   I am in the best possible health. Since the retreat of the enemy I have been too busy to write. You must look in the correspondence of the Commercial or Gazette for my welfare. If I should lose a little [...]

Cross Lanes, September 19, 1861. Dearest:   It is a lovely moonlight evening. I mailed you a letter this morning, but as Lieutenant Wall of Captain McIlrath’s company has resigned to go with the navy, and will go to Cincinnati tomorrow, I thought I would say a word further while our band plays its finest [...]

September 19. – Offered the place of judge-advocate general by General Rosecrans. Have served in five cases – [on the] 5th and 6th at Sutton, 16th, 17th and 18th at Cross Lanes (also the 12th) –and a few days between those dates preparing reports of proceedings.

Cross Lanes, Near Gauley River, South Of Summersville, Virginia, September 19, 1861. Dear Mother : – I am in the best possible health. Since the retreat of the enemy I have been too busy to write. You must look in the correspondence of the Commercial or Gazette for my welfare. If I should lose a [...]

Cross Lanes, Near Gauley River, Below Summersville, Virginia, September 19, Thursday A. M., [1861]. Dearest: – I fear you do not get the letters I have written the last ten days, as we are out of the reach of mail facilities. I got your letter of the 5th about forty miles north of here out [...]