1862 February 23 Camp Shields

Camp Shields Feb. 23rd, 1862


My Dear Father

It is my usual time for
writing, therefore I write; tho' I have noth-
ing to say. You see by the date of
my letter that I have gotten well
& have removed to camp; tho' I have
not yet reported for duty & shall not
do so in several days. Yr. & mothers
letter reached me last thurfriday;
we got no mail from Richmond
Thursday or I had received it
then. I can't conceive why your
letters are always so quick to come
& mine so slow. But I had much
rather it should be so than reverse.

Our two big guns have come -- one a 32 &
the other a 24 pounder. One is placed at
Evans & the other at fort Johnson -- I mention
these facts because you heard them
so much talked of when you were
here & what we have much talked
of we are sure to feel some interest
in. the 24 pdr. came down yesterday to the
burnt bridge to practice -- fired only three

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times because of scarcity of ammunition.
The General seems very much pleased
with his it. It's greatest range is, I think,
about three miles -- some of the company
thought ^'it was' more. We have now ten guns
in all our brigade -- General Hill command-
ing. We have now & have had since Evans
left two Generals, the other being General
Griffith. What the object in sending
him here is, I can't imagine. There are
not more than four thousand men
in the brigade. Griffith commands the
four Mississippi Regts. He being from the
same state. I recollect you thought
Hill [w]rong for saying publicly that he
was going to attack the canal with
these two guns when they came. It
turned out he sent the Yankees word he
wd. do so if they did not quit firing
over here. I write this to justify our Genl.
By the bye they across the river yester^'day', the 22nd,
a great noise firing cannon & music to cel-
brate that day. You see, ^'in the papers' they arrested
General Stone -- one of the charges against him
is for allowing ^'us' to build a fort within range

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of his guns -- that is fort Evans. I have
often thought it strange he did so. Their
guns, during its erection fired on it one
day with great accuracy -- frightening
the negroes so much who were work-
ing on it, that they could not be stopped
before reaching Leesburg. The work
went on afterwards without interruption
although they had obtained the range so ac-
curately. Gorman is now their General. From
various things I have heard about Stone
sice I have been up here I would not
be astonished if we had a good deal
of his sympathy. The Donnelson fight
or disaster, which it seems to be, tho' we
have as yet no reliable accounts of its extent, has
created some excitement among the soldiers. It has
caused a good many to reenlist, of course
we are all sorry for it; but it has aroused a
spirit of strong determination. A great many
think of R. Island & Henry & Donnelson that
id did not make as much difference, as Wise
saw, "for they had not blood on their bayonets."
But I have been talking of things
which can not be of interest to you.
All the news in the way of war, wh. I

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have, is that General Jackson expects
to be attacked in his present position
tomorrow, wh. is at or near Winchester.
This is official, therefore true -- but I
have learned since in the army
that the generals very often miscalcu-
late -- indeed they do not seem to know
much more of the movements of
the enemy than the privates. You
& mother both write me to come home
in April. I can not do so if I rein-
list. Again if I do so, I would probably
not be able to get one at any time next
winter. I would much prefer one then
to one now. And by reenlisting ^'now' a furlough
is guaranteed by the act under wh: I do so
on the first occasion wh: the "public exigen-
cies wil allow" & a bounty of fifty dollars;
wh: would not be unacceptable -- this
furlough the public exigencies I hope wd:
allow next winter. Duty compels me I
think to enter the army immediately
somewhere & I suppose this is a good a
place for a private as any. Dearest father
good bye -- My best love to mother, George & all
Farewell my dear father, may God bless you.
Yr. son W. H. Perry Jr.

[written on the side margins of page r]
I told Frank Williams that Joel Burns was in the army. He said he did not think he
was going to enter the army, But explained by saying
his family & business wd. prevent. Not as many soldiers were al-
lowed to leave on furlough as I wrote you word would be on account
of threatening aspect of the enemy along the lines the Generals order says.

William H. Perry, 1836-1915, of the Richmond Howitzers, later a Virginia lawyer

MSS 7786-d