1862 May 16 Camp near Falmouth Va

Camp near Falmouth Va May 16th 1862
Dear cousin Mary
I received your very
o-interesting letter a few evenings ago
and was much pleased to hear from
you in as much as it gives me a great
amount of pleasure to receive a letter
from any of my friends, and more
particularly, those who are my relatives.
We are now about thirty miles from the
place I last wrote you, we left there
on the 7th of this month; the roads over
which we traveled in coming here were
through a rough and hilly country with
a few occasional farm houses by the way
side to cheer us on to duty's call: on
our second day's march a few men
(I believed seven in number) lingered behind
the regiment and rear guard
and were attacked by a rebel
guerilla band, two of them escaped

[page 2]
the one receiving a slight wound
in the head, the others were taken
prisoners.  Falmouth is a small town
on the banks of the Rappahannock
River, in size it is about the same
as Landisburg though not as pretty
a place, it lies right in a hollow
anyway you go to it except by the
river will be a decent of about three
or four hundred feet; the citizens
have mostly all left and the town
is principally inhabited by slaves
though it is fastly filling up with
whites.  Fredericksburg on the opposite
side of the river is a midling
sized town or city as it is called, it
formerly had over five thousand
inhabitants however it may
not have half that many
now for they were nearly all
secesh and I suppose would
leave when their brethren left;
I have not been over the river

[page 3]
yet and cannot describe the beau-
ties and scenery of the place though
I may at some other time. I will now
give you a brief description of
our present encampment, name-
ly third briggade P.R.C. it is in
a very beautiful place surrounded
on all sides by beautiful forests
the regiment that compose this brigade
are the 6th, 9th, 10 & 12 P. R. C. under the
command of Brigadier General E. O. C. Ord
the camp is laid out in regular
streets and at the end of each street
there is a large arch reath, some
have the letters of their companies
worked in the reaths, there is small
cedar and spruce trees planted
around the tents to keep the sun
from striking them so hard; the
water is very good in this country.
the small streams that meander along
side our camps are clear as crystal
The larger streams are inhabited by

[page 4]
any amount of the finy tribe, large
quantities are brought into camp
every day.  I had a letter from home
a few evenings ago, in which I am
told father is going to Ohio to see
Uncl Sam Hench, they are all well.
The health of the army is very good, but
few are on the sick list, my health
has been very good ever since I
came into the army and so has
Nicholas'. The weather has been
rainy and damp for the last three
days and has not cleared up right-
ly yet.  Well I must draw my poorly
written letter to a close, hoping
to hear from you soon I bid you
kind farewell.
From your cousin
Frank

This letter of Francis Hamilton Hench, 1839-1863, Co. A, 12th Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserve  Volunteers, together with a  carte-de-visite photograph, was found in the family correspondence of University of Virginia professor Atcheson Laughlin Hench.  Frank Hench was killed at Gettysburg 14 months later.


MSS 10000