Head Quarters 10th VtCamp Heintzelman June 12th 1863My Darling wife

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Yours of the 7th came tonight. Yesterday was quite an exciting day with us. At day light in the morning I was aroused from a quiet slumber with some thing like this “Col Henry!! The rebels have crossed the river, pitched upon Capt Dean’s Co of the 6th Mich. Cavalry, drove them here and are within three miles of our camp advancing rapidly!!!” You can imagine that such a “wake up” might start a poor fellows hair up a little I immediatly called the Regt. into line and took up a position about fifty rods from our camp behind a “Stone wall” with four pieces of artillery on a little swell of land close by, and awaited for the enemy, but no enemy came. Three miles was as close as they could

to approach us. The rascals killed three of the sixth Mich. and took 17 of them prisoners, and “skedadled” back again to their own side of the river – to day a large force of cavalry are after them, and they will be smart if they get away. Six hundred came up from Washington last night and crossed to Leesburgh this morning. If they had come up a few days ago and been here we could have caught them very easy, but as it was we had no cavalry force with which to follow them at once. I wrote you a few days ago, that I was fearful of this same thing, and Col Jewett asked for more men but I suppose they thought in Washington “no matter about us”. You may rest assured of one thing, that is if they had attacked us you would have heard a good account of the 10th Vt. for I had a splendid position and the boys were all “fighting mad. All is quiet here again. And we are all well.

We have learned to day that the Michigan boys killed a rebel Captain besides a Lieut. you will see by the paper I send you it says a “Lieut and one private” - the private turned out to be their Capt.

As ever yours William