1862 July 27 Camp near Harrison's Landing, Va.

July 27th 1862

Mr Bradley
Your letter
of the 20th inst is received
and a poor miserable scamp
cant find any thing else
to do this pleasant sunday
evening only to sit down
and scratch first on the
this paper and then where-
ever a louse happens to
bite or a mosquito sits about
three seconds. We are all
well and sound on the goose
as far as the cripples from
spencer are concerned
I received a letter from
Charley yesterday and I
think by the way he writes
he will not be allowed

[page 2]
come back right away
by the doctor   We are sitting
here on the banks of the river
doing what duty we have
to do and reading such
papers as the Herald tribune
times and philadelphia
enquirer to find out what
is being done at home
We know about as much after
we read them all as I
about what is going on as an
inmate of the Lunnatic
assylum at utica each tells
a different story and each
one of them of course are right
and the rest are wrong.
Sometimes I see things in
the papers that are utterly
false no more truth in
them than there will be
in us soldiers if we have

[page 3]
to stay here until help
comes to us and have to
read the lies that are daily
published about what we
have done and are a doing
If the government will
send back the men that
it has let go home on the very
word I am sick without any
furlough and are now laying
around home perfectly well
and let Gen Pope go on as
he has started we will be
in richmond soon You
seem to think that Mc Celd-
lan has done wrong perhaps
he has and perhaps he is
to blame for our present
position but I do not think
so.  On our march from west
point we were marched in
two days farther than we

[page 4]
we would have been in
three because word came
that McDowel was moving
from fredericksburg and we
must be there by the time
he was we got there but no
McDowell was there   We waited
every day expecting him
until after the fight at
hanover Court house  When
it was announced to us
that we had to depend upon
ourselves alone and that McDow
ell was still at fredericksburg
The next we heard from him
was he had most of Banks men
and that Jackson was after
him with a sharp stick
The next we hear is the roar
of Jackson's guns on our right
and then we learn that this
army disappointed first by
mcdowell slowness and
reduced by sickness and

[page 5]
McClellan that he was at
Frredericksburg and could
not move; from that day we
took the defensive or ditch
digging policy The next day
after the battle of Hanover court
house word came from the
right that mcdowells skir-
mishers had reached our pickets
our tents were all struck and
and knapsacks packed and
put in charge of the quar-
termasters and we with 80
rounds of amunition; three
days rations ready to move.
Some troops went halfway
to Mechanicsville before the
truth was found out and
that no one of McDowells
army had been heard from
in that direction we pitched

[page 6]
our tents again returned our
extra cartridges, and did
not make the assault on
the rebel capitol simply because
tMcdowell did not do what it was
expected he would do; he did
not try to go only jest as far as
the rebels had a few men
thrown out for to watch him
and see when he was coming
on; you know how he got Banks
whipped and if you had been
here you would know that by
his actions that  he in part
at least is to blame for our
defeat if he had done as it
was expected he would do when
the army was divided after
manassas was taken he would
have been whiped with us in
an assault upon richmond
or went into it side by side
with McClellan but I believe

[page 7]
that we would have been
whiped in that assault
and so does most every man
that knows how the city is
defended then McClellan
would have been blamed for
not digging and beseiging
and doing nothing.  A great
deal is said about swamps
being taken for an attack
to be made from; if we ever
get richmond we will have
to get into swamps or at
least a portion of us unless
the rebels are fools and fall
back and give us a better
chance than they did
before and that I dont
think they will do
If the president sends a
successor we will do just as
much for him as for anyone
else but I hope he will not

[page 8]
be sent for when I look
at the situation that
we were in one year ago to
day or back to the fatal day
at bull run and at our situation
now I still have hopes in the
man  Where is the great eye sores
manassas Norfolk Yorktown
and the merrimac If the people
of the north demands the slaughter
of the army in an assault upon
the rebels works has the restora-
tion of confidence in McClellan
let them say so and there is
not rive thousand men in
this army but what will start
in one hour and either die on
the road or drive the rebels out
of their capitol if they will send us
that man to lead us or follow along
behind that thinks the thing can
be done  I like the confiscation
bill but there is one thing left out
there is no provision made for
furnishing a rope for every man
found fighting against us we
cant find a limb for each one
and if we cant we will put

[in left hand margin of page 8]
two or three on a limb We can put down the rebels or

[in top margin of page 8]
when ropes are used and not till then

[in top margin of page 5]
in my opinion a rope prepared
for every tenth man in the rebel army would imediately
would be a good investment by
the government
                                  A. P. Jones

[in left hand margin of page 4]
write and let us know how enlisting prospers and how drafting
will go down

[in top margin of page 4]
some
of the peaceable
coercion men's
throats they are
building ovens in camp to bake bread
for us now
Draft some good dem-
ocrat and
send him
down and
we will give him
a piece
of govern
ment
bread
free of
charge


A.P. Jones appears to be a friend of Charles Ellery Bradley of the 32nd N.Y. as this letter was  found among a group of letters sent to Bradley's father Lyman Bradley, of Spencer, Tioga County, N.Y.


MSS 9728