1862 September 13 near Gainesville

  Headqrs 6 Cav at Hopewell Gap
near Gainesville, Sat 13 Sept. 62

My dear Sister
                             Capt Rowe, of
the Orange Rangers is starting to
Orange this morn, and I avail
myself of the opp.ty to write to you.
We are still in the neighborhood
of the battle-field, kept here as
a protection to the party employed
in collecting arms; of which it
is said the Confederacy has much
need.  I hear that no less than 20.000
small arms have been gathered up
upon the battle field; but of these
perhaps 5000 were our own.
It has been a matter of great dif-
-ficulty to get the arms carried
off--and it would not have been

[page 2]
accomplished, if they had not
found some cars in the Manassas
road wh. the Yank.s had left un=
=burned.  They hitched up mules
to these, and with the help of a few
teams & wagons wh. they man=
=ged to get hold of, they
have succeeded in removing
the arms to Salem, on their
way to Winchester.
 We are in a nice camp-
we have fine water-wh.
is a great desideratum
& we get some corn-&
a plenty of hay---
  There is a little church
closeby, & I preached in
that last evening &

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the preceding--The men
attend well & seem to
like the services--
  When we get into the
field tho', I can preach
but seldom--I have
made the acquaintance
of a good many, among
them Mr Buell Grady
an A.M. of  [?]
Capt Rowe is starting
& I must close.  Give
my best love to mother
& all--God be with
you--
   Yr aff bro
       Richard

[page 4]
PS I keep very well indeed--
Just now we are foraging
quite successfully--getting
milk, butter, cooking apples,
a sprinkling of tomatoes.  We
have no sugar however &
have to sweeten coffee (cap
-tured at Manassas)
with molasses

Richard Terrell Davis, 1830-1892, Chaplain of the 6th Virginia Cavalry

MSS 9852