1862 September 5

[on patriotic stationery with a vignette of a helmeted cavalry man brandishing a sword and a verse:
To arms!  to arms! quick be ready,
think of what the South has been:
Onward, onward! strong and steady--
Drove the vandals to their den.
On, and let the watch-word be:
Country, home, and liberty!]

Balls Bluff
September Friday the 5th 1862
Dear Susan this leaves me
well  and hope it may find you all well I wr
ote from Culpeper C.H. which I hope you
got ere this as I know u must have a thousand
uneasy thoughts we arrived at the above named
place yesterday Sent here on picket I suppose
while our army crosses the Potomac into
Maryland our Battery is all that is at
this point this is the point where the great
slughter of yankeys was by Col Evans
Their is 4 trenches not a hundred yds from
where I st 30 feet long filled up withe
the slain on the march we came through
part of the Bttleground near bullrun
on the 30th of Agst 62 and it was a sight to
to behold the slain they ware lying strewn
on the ground thick Some places you could
stand in one place and count 30 Yankeys

[page 2]
I dont know how to write for it is said some
of our men and the broken down Horses will
be sent to winchester to recruit and the
balance will follow the army over to Maryl
and but I know I will not get the choice to go
to winchester as I cant say exactly who will
go as it is a fixed fact that our army is crossing
rifer into maryland and I hope they will bring
the war to a close by so doing but god only
knows what will bee done but I put my trust
in him and I have the utmost confidence
in our Genrals I am siting on the Bluff overlook
in the potomac the last rays of a seting sun
shine on to my view on the soil of Mary=
=land and I must close for to night, no mail
from this place and shall send this to win=
=chester in hopes to get it forwarded from
that place D.J. E. H. & Thomas King are well
and wishes to be remembered to Each of
their mothers Father and Sisters and friends

[letter of Andrew Gillespie of Ancell's Co., Virginia Light Artillery to his wife Susan will continue on the 6th]

MSS 9564