1861 July 30th, Camp Fairfax [Virginia]

Dear Joe,
I would have answered yr letter long
ago but I’ve been expecting you over here every day for about two weeks,
and I did not hear that you were not coming until Marcelus Beadles
came over. I w’d have been very glad to have seen you over here but
reckon it is best that you did not come as you’ve tried this sort of
life once & saw that you c’d not stand it. Well Joe, I’ve gotten on
this side of the mountains once more & don’t care if I ever never see the
other
side again, for I’ve had enough of Harper’s Ferry, Winchester, Romney
& those other places on the other side of the Blue ridge to last me some time.
I was left behind at Winchester sick with the baggage when all
of them left & I did n’t get with them again for nearly a week,
I never had such a lonesome time in my life, I actually had a
^‘slight’ attack of the Blues on the strength of it. When I got to Strasburg I
heard of the fight at Manassa[s] & heard that our Regiment was in
it & were a great many were killed, of course that made me
feel very badly. I suppose you’ve heard all of the particulars of the
victory at Manassa? That was certainly a great victory. The Yankees were
very certain of going to Richmond, they even had women & children
along,
a great many children’s clothes were found. The prettiest part of it was
their having handcuffs & ropes along, thirty thousand handcuffs & any
quantity of rope was taken, they intended carrying all of us that were
not killed to Richmond handcuffed & tied. Our camp now was
occupied by the Yankees, they left a great many things here, left

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a sick Yankee b’hind. Nearly every one of our boys made themselves
sick when they first got here eating Yankee crackers, beef tongue & beans,
we are still feasting on their crackers, a wagon load of crackers
were brought in yesterday from Manassa. You never saw the like
of wagons with U. S. on them in y’r life, we don’t use anyother
sort now hardly. I did not go on the battle field at all but saw
a great many of the prisoners & wounded, heard some of the wound=
ed talking, they said they didn’t expect to be treated so well , that the
we treated them better than their own men did…. I don’t know
how long we will remain here but w’d n’t be surprised if we were
here sometime yet. This is a very good place for a camp, we have plenty
good water convenient, the only objection is it’s being a righty dirty place,
we had a general cleaning up yesterday which improved the looks of
things very much…. all of us are get[t]ing very lazy, we don’t have any
thing to do now but to sleep & eat, we have dress parade in the evening.
Yesterday was my washing day, I had a pile of clothes to wash
as I had n’t done any washing for about two weeks before.

A new arrangement has been made about the cooking now, each negro
has a mess to cook for & the rest cook for themselves. Lieutenant Winston
hires Harry & Bro. Jno, Pen, Jim Winston, Henry Chiles, Payne, Kit &
myself are in his mess & we live like Lords, don’t have any trouble
about eating now at all. We had for dinner yesterday, ham & eggs,
onions & cucumbers, pickle, for desert hot corn bread, buttermilk, molas=
ses, butter & cake, that is good enough for anybody is n’t it Joe?
Market carts come in camp every day, you ought to see the men
flock around them. I went out blac after black berries the other
day, fou[n]d a great many….Joe, you are as well fixed now
as you want to be, I know you had rather be here with us but as

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you can’t be here, you are doing first rate. You & Lit have the whole
field to your selves now, but I don’t think either of you would take
advantage of the boys in their absence. Do you & Lit ever quarrel
about whose time it is to go down to spend the night at Mr. Wilkin’s?
Ira told me that you took it by turns to stay all night & I w’d not
be surprised if both of you went sometimes & left the store to take
care of itself, I don’t blame you at all for wanting to go every
night Joe, for it is certainly a very nice place to visit, my love
to the whole family…. [words lined out] I never was more surprised in
my life as I was to see Pa the other days & never hated parting
with any body so bad, I could not help shed[d]ing a few tears after
he I left him. I heard to day that the cars w’d commence running
to this place next Monday & if we are here then you must certain=
ly come to see us, we are right at the station & it w’d be a very expense
& trouble to come to see us, all of us would be very glad to see you.
All of the boys that know I am writing to you send their best
love to you. I expect Albin over here soon, tell him if he don’t
hurry up the malitia will get him yet, I want to see him over
here very bad. Your must write me a long letter very soon &
tell Lit to write. My best love to all at home & all of my
friends. All of us are well. Y’r devoted friend

P. Edloe Jones
Manassas Junction
Louisa Blues

Cap. Wm. Joseph Brook s
Louisa CH
Va.


My love to Lin Kent & tell him
I will answer his letter soon.

Edloe

“Special Order” No. 1.
No one to see this but home folks

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P. S. I intended writing more, but I have to go on
picket now directly, our whole Co is on picket tonight
& tomorrow, we will have a pleasant time of it. Ed
　
　MSS 13407