1862 June 26 near Richmond, Va.

                                                June 26th 1862  
My Dear Father                                                  
                  I am now with my battery encamped
in the field not 100 yards from the point where  
we parted. But how different are the circumstances!
Then all was quiet – nothing to say two large
hostile armies were by each other – two armies as much
embittered against one another as men have ever
been. Now the most incessant artillery, far around
to our left, I ever heard, tells that Jackson has
commenced that battle which is to decide so
much. No battle ever fought has decided more
than this will. The sun is setting – that artil-
lery began about two hours ago. Occasionally
when the roar of artillery ceases & its reverberation
(wh: latter is wonderful on the Chickahominy) the
rattle (it is generally called so, but is far from
being a rattling sound) of musketry indistinctly but
incessantly rolling (the true sound) tells the battle is
being hotly & hardly fought. (I have just heard
that this musketry has been going on for five
hours; ever since three P.M. & that it is between
Mechanicsville & Meadow Bridges. Tomorrow
I have no doubt will be the decisive day.
Oh! may Heaven grant us this victory & save
my country. This side of the swamp not a gun

[page 2]
can be heard. At the late battle of the Seven
Pines all the firing was this side. Tomorrow
I suppose it will be here & there too. The fight
of to day is much heavier than that of the 31st &
1st. Then we lost six thousand. That battle be-
gan about eleven then & was long in conse-
quence but the larger scale on which this bat-
tle is fought will give as many wounded, I
reckon. If the fighting is where I mentioned
above it cannot be Jackson’s army but must
be the commands of D. A. Hill. A. P. Hill & Long-
street, which have all gone to that locality.

[letter of William H. Perry, Jr., of the Richmond Howitzers will continue on the 27th




[transcript by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards]

MSS 7786-d