Augusta County: Benjamin Franklin Cochran to His Mother, June
12, [1860 or 1860]
Summary:
Cochran writes his mother about encountering enemy fire when working on a dam.
Mother
June the 12
Camp clover Berkeley county Virginia
Dear Mother
I received your letter of the fourth and was very glad to hear
from you. We expect a fight soon now we have had one or two skirmishes at honey wood mills we were down there a few days ago
that is about 20 of us working at a dam to blow it up whilst we were at work a body of men the
other side of the river showered their balls amongst us from the bank
of the canal from behind the stone wall but none of us were hurt we ran under cover and got our [unclear:
carpenter
] then Colonel Stuart ordered us to make for the dam and
cover I was the first one to step from the house
[page 2]
which we were behind I made a
slight [unclear:
pass
] to look for [unclear:
afor
] to fire at when I was hailed by a shower of balls which struck all around me we
fired from four oclock PM until dark two were killed on the enemies side or badly wounded We have but little time for play we have to
stay up every other night on picket there is one post 15 miles from camp four of us have to
stand picket there some times when we start from camp and very often there is nothing to carry with us to eat we go out one morning and come back the next
about 12 oclock without a thing to eat some times the neighbors send us something to eat
[page 3]
There is no news here you can hear more than we can for we are not allowed to go out of camp without a pass and then we cannot go out of bugle sound We are now placed 25 miles from the Ferry but Colonel Stuart sends one man to the Ferry every two days for the mail and boxes sent to us I am very glad that you are going to make me some calico shirts make them like the linen shirts with pleated bosom and fix them so that I can change the collars you need not make any collars for them as I have plenty of white ones Direct your letters to the Ferry How is little Adam. I did not see Mr. Mc C when he was down to the Ferry
Your Affectionate son
B.F. Cochran
