American Historical Ephemera and Photography

2 pages, 5 x 8 1/8 in., folds, few separations, some ink smearing, soiling. Signed indecipherably.

The unknown soldier, writing to his wife and children, begins hoping his letter finds them well. He informs them that his unit left camp near White Oak Church and encamped along the Rappahannock the previous Thursday, 11 December, and crossed the river on a pontoon bridge before being drawn up in the line of battle the following day. The Battle of Fredericksburg was getting underway.

He writes: "Left at Daylight on friday morning when we crossed the Rappahannock on the pontoon Bridge and were Drawn up in line of Battle but the Rebels did not show us fight..."

He continues, describing the melee: "...we laid on the field all night without tents and on Saturday morning at Daylight when we supported the Battery until 2 o clock PM when we were ordered in the woods to route the Rebels and i tell you it was hard fighting for the woods was very thick and i don't see how i escaped for the Balls flew so thick there was one shot one each side of me there was one Reb stood behind a big tree and come very near shooting me but i took him and he turned round and fell over and laid there..."

Coming to the present moment, the soldier writes that he and his men expect to "be in it again to day," but that he hopes and trusts that he will come out safe. He tells his wife how much money he is able to send her, wishing it could be more, and briefly mentions that Charles Duncan, who must be a mutual acquaintance, "was wounded in the Leg, but i think not dangerously."

He ends the letter on an ominous note, giving the grave statistics from the battle: "we went in with 48 men and came out with 27."