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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