My Dearest Mother
I received to day yr. let-
ter of the 9th with a P. C. of the 10th
sent through Mc Kinney & Drefuss. In
my last I suggested you direct to
Richmond. Do so to care of George
J. Herring (alias fish). It will be my qui-
kest way of getting them. This I put
first lest I might forget to mention
it. You do not dear mother know
how sorry I feel at hearing of Dear
little George’s sickness. Give him
a warm kiss for me & tell him I
have always since in the army
wanted to see him a great
deal – but I had rather be with
him now when sick, than at
any other time. Oh! How I hope he
is now relieved from that
painful disease. Tell him I
have occupied all the ^ ‘spare’ time
[page 2]
I had to day, before our march
commenced & since until now
late in the evening, in cooking
It being my turn to day & one
cook having left us about
a month ago for fear of be-
ing cut off from his woman
who lives in Orange Co. We have
tho a prospect for getting another
in a very few days. I begin to
think I am one of the experts
in camp as to cooking. Tho’ you
^ ‘or’Julia would not consider
me so. I have written home, two
or three letters since the fight at
Williamsburg. I suppose you have
received them before now. I will
not say anything about it now – I
expect I talked too much about it then.
too much. We have fallen back to
this place or the vicinity of Rcd.[Richmond]
I see the enemy’s newspaper ac-
page 3]
counts state they had 20:000
men on the field & we fifty. I wrote
the no. we had and on the field.
Our brigade have marched a-
round Richmond & are now on
the Mechanichsville turnpike wh:
runs out towards Old Church
in Hanover county. I tell this that
you may have an idea of the move-
ments of our troops. Our Picketts
were run in to within 2 ½ miles of
us this morning, but were strength-
ened & returned to their position
about 7 miles down the Rd. I think
a battle will be somewhere about
Richmond before a very long
period of time has elaspsed, or
strategical moves on a most
gigantic scale. I did not know
until to day your mule had been
hurt – how was it done? It is
probable that the organi-
[page 4]
zation of our army compa-
ny will be revised & we will
have a new election. It is
possible Mc Carthy may be
beaten. I was quite glad
to hear of that . I think Jery [?]
is so much better off
than I thought. I sincerely
wish I was at home to see
the beautiful (the prettiest flo-
wers I have ever seen) & deli-
cate flower by Julia’s house)
in bloom, but more than
I might see my friends.
7 A.M 20th my Dear mother I could not fin-
ish this last night before dark. Nothing
active this morning seems to be trans-
piring. We got a cook (a slave) this mor-
ning, paying $10:00 a month for him. I
don’t see how General McClellan can claim
a victory at Wmsburg. We certainly had fewer men
a engaged – took more prisoners than they did –
killed & wounded more men than they did – took
every piece of artillery they had on the field.
[A fragment of a letter in this file may be the ending of this letter. See below.]
Tho’ the mud prevented us from bringing it ^ ‘all’ off; we did
bring the most of it away. At the close of the day our
position was exactly the same as in the morning
when the battle began. We were on the retreat or
the defensive, yet succeeded in making the
battle ground beyond the enemies lines. And
only resumed our retreat, according to original
intentions, when we felt disposed & when the
enemy did not see fit to molest us. It
seems we drove the enemy’s gun boats
back on James river. There has both in
Richmond & in the army great fear been felt
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lest gun boats should reach it. The people
of Richmond are very violent against Mr. Presi-
dent Davis for his criminal neglect of its
defence; until within [?] a very short period. Do
not forget to direct to Richmond care of George
& Herring. I am sorry Tom & Patsy are sick.
Give again my love to little George. How long
has Diphtheria been prevailing in our
neighborhood.[?] Is it the same that
was prevalent in the upper end of
Lunenburg before I left home.[?] I must
close. Dear Mother farewell
Yr. Affly W.H. Perry Jr.
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