October 9 — This evening our wagons were ordered to the rear and the battery to the front. We took three days’ rations in our haversacks and marched to Raccoon Ford on the Rapidan. When we arrived at the Ford we immediately put our guns in position in an earthwork which thoroughly commands the ford, and is only about two hundred yards from the river. Along here by Raccoon Ford the land on the south or Orange side of the Rapidan is much higher than it is on the north or Culpeper side, or, in other words, the country along the river on the Orange is high and hilly, while on the Culpeper side it is low and level. If the Yankees take a notion at any time to fight us here, we will have decidedly the advantage in position.
There are great many earthworks thrown up on the hills along the south side of the river, both above and below Raccoon Ford. The Yankees have a strong picket line posted along the north bank of the river, and we have a line of pickets strung along the south bank. To-day the pickets were friendly and talking to each other like brothers, and, I think, doing some trading, bartering tobacco for coffee, and exchanging newspapers; to-morrow they may be shooting at each other like savages, for such are the possible amenities and incongruities of intestine war.
On the opposite side of the river and in front of our position is a beautiful level plain about three miles long and a mile wide. Looking from our present standpoint across the fields of Culpeper, we can see an immense Yankee encampment about seven miles away in the direction of Culpeper Court House, the white tents shimmering in the sunshine like little pyramids of snow.
Raccoon Ford is about ten miles from Culpeper Court House due south. We sleep by our guns to-night, which are in battery ready for action.
