1862 April 10 Culpeper County

Culpepper County near Rappahan-
ock River April 10th 1862

My dear Ma;
As I have nothing to do this eve-
ning, & have been fortunate enough to borrow paper &c, I will
write you a few lines. All of my writing material is in
my knapsack at Culpepper CH… Our Co. is now on picket
about a mile & a half from the Regt – half a mile or three quarters
from the river. We came out last Monday. I thought I was
going to have a fine time fishing – brought my hooks along – but
we had not gotten reached our post before we met Major Don-
sett, of 1st Md. who gave us orders to stop – pile up our
blankets – load & get ready to fight – the enemy was advance-
ing – we deployed as skirmishers & advancin ed within
seven or eight hundred yards of a ford w’h we went to de=
fend, sh’d they attempt to cross - & took our position in the
woods – the enemy was then in sight – they soon commenced
throwing shell – some of them came right near us, but no one
was hurt. They shelled the woods for some time both
right, left & in front, & then all at once limbered up & left,
carrying off some cattle with them. There was not a sin=
gle shot fired from our side.. Some of their skirmishers
came tolerable near us, but we had orders to conceal our=
selves & not to fire unless they attempted to cross the
ford.. I don’t know what force they had – but they
certainly had artillery – Cavalry & as much as one Regt. of

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Infantry if no more. Some think it was just a forag=
ing party, & others think it was done in order to keep us here.
We’ve not seen or heard from them since….. We are havin=
g a fine time here now; with the exception of one post at
the river, w’h eight men have to guard at night – I was there
last night, & had the hardest time ever yet standing guard-
had no shelter, & of course could not sleep any, as it was
raining, snowing, hailing or raining all night & was very cold.
I made up for loss sleep this morning – slept about four hrs..
We all have house to stay – I am up stairs in the
kitchen, in a very comfortable room… It is get[t]ing too
dark to write & as I’ve not candles I must quit until tomor=
row. Yr devoted & most aff
son P. Edloe Jones

P. Edloe Jones with his brothers John William Jones, and Francis Pendleton Jones served in the Louisa Blues, 13th Virginia Infantry.

[transcription by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards]

MSS 13407