Chapin’s Farm, Va.,
February 12, 1865.
Dear Sister L. :—
You seem to be having a very severe winter. All the soldiers who have been home say, with a shrug of the shoulders, “It is terribly cold up there.” It is cold enough here. To-day the wind almost takes the roof off my house. It is, however, the most windy day we have had.
Military operations just here are pretty quiet, though they have been moving on the extreme left of the Army of the Potomac. The Eighty-third was engaged, I see, and Alf’s regiment.
Lee tried a most brilliant dodge a week or two ago. We were such fools that we did not see our danger till the papers told us of it. I make a little “plan” of it. (Sketch omitted.) Lee sent a force estimated at 20,000 down to the right of our line, and when they were all ready sent the gun boats to run by Fort Brady and go down and break our pontoon bridges and thus cut us off, and when this was done the 20,000 was to break through our line on the right and gobble us all up. It was an excellent plan. The gun boats succeeded in getting by the fort and then got stuck in the mud. One of them was blown up and the others were glad enough to get back safely. They supposed that our boats had all gone to Wilmington, and they were pretty near right, but we upon the line did not know that, and the whole thing was a mystery to us, and it proved a failure. My little rough plan will give you some idea of our position here. Our division is on the right of the corps and just after the C. in “25th C.” I have marked an X. That is the camp of the Eighth, and just across the creek southwest from the 2, in “24th C.” is another X. That is the location of my domicile.
