Augusta County: Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara A. Hotchkiss,
December 17, 1862
Summary:
Hotchkiss describes a recent battle, and discusses affairs at home, such as servants and
children.
Sara A. Hotchkiss
Wednesday Dec. 17th 1862
Camp at Moss Neck Caroline Co. Va.
My Dear Wife:
I just received your letter of the 10th, the
first word from home since I left, though I have written four or five
times --I am very sorry you have had such a time with Anna, & hope she is now better
and may continue so -- for I know it is very hard on you to have so many cares -- I see, by
your letter, that you are worn down by care, and so have the "horrors" -- You will say I do not
appreciate your troubles, but I know I do, and fully feel for them all, but words are of little
use & I can only hope for days of peace and respite from the stern demands of cruel war
to enable me to fix myself & family as I would desire, and so they may have as much of
comfort as this changing and uncertain world can supply -- I do not expect to find any
perfectly satisfactory state of things in such a condition of being as
this, and only hope to use its transitory pleasures and ills, mixed
as they are, as preparatory for a better & surer world --
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I have written to you about Allen -- I will see to the payment of his hire &c, and I wrote to you to know what you desired about servants &c and hope to hear from you in a few days, in reference to that. I wrote you a gloomy letter the day before the big fight of Saturday, in which I indulged in gloomy anticipations of what might happen on the morrow, but my gloomy mood passed with the day, although that day brought sadness to many hearth stones -- gloom to many a household, yet God's good Providence spared me -- and I am thankful, truly thankful, for my own sake & ten thousand times more on my family's account -- and may God for his Son's sake still shield me -- May that it may be so, My Dear, & teach our little ones to ask protection from our Heavenly Father for me from the "arrow that flieth at noonday"
The account of the battle in the papers is a very good one -- and you can form a good idea
of what was done from that. The enemy crossed back night before last, during a storm, to the
other side of the Rappahannock -- leaving his dead on the field, although he had asked and
obtained
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a truce to take off his wounded and bury his dead and had collected them
from the battle field for that purpose -- thus tacitly admitting that he had been completely
whipped -- cut short in his onward career towards Richmond -- We heard that the enemy intended
to cross last night at Port Royal, 20 miles below Fredericksburg, so we started yesterday
morning and came on down the Rappahannock & came on to this place on our way to Port
Royal, but heard that the enemy had not come down, so we halted by the wayside and bushed it
for about half the night then the Gen. froze out and we hunted up a house and slept soundly
until 10 o'clock this morning, the first time for several nights -- Burnsides has disappeared,
but I guess we will soon find out his whereabouts. We are some 14 miles from the Railroad now, but have constant communication -- My letter did not reach
you in time for my box -- so I shall be content until such time as I can come or it can be
safely sent to me to the care of Maj. Hawks at Guinea's Station Richmond, Fredericksburg, & Petersburg Railroad
I went down to the enemy's lines during the day
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of truce and saw the Yanks carry
off their dead -- I tell you they lost a great number -- they lay in heaps in many places, mown down by the steady and continued fire of our brave soldiers.
Our position was a very fine one, our men sheltered by the woods -- but we had many killed & wounded by the shells of the enemy from long range guns -- One Battalion of our Artillery had 119 horses killed & disabled and 98 men -- The line of battle was four miles long -- and the enemy had three lines of troops reaching about that distance and then masses of troops besides.
Write to me soon my Dear -- I will try to come up soon and see about servants &c &c -- and I have some hopes we may be through with this war by Spring and, if my life is spared I may return to my family & the pursuits of peace. If any one says I might pay my debts from my salary I can only say that such a person is a heartless wretch -- destitute of patriotism and ignorant of what it costs a soldier to serve his country and defend such souless creatures as the set of sharks at home that think only of gain and personal aggrandizement -- I will write to Nelly a few lines though I have a head ache and feel badly tonight having been up so much of late
Good bye and God bless you all
Your affectionate husband
Jed. Hotchkiss
