Camp Somewhere near RichmondJune 7th 1862My darling wife

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I rec’d two letters from you to-day. a happy day to me, but they tell of poor Ainsworth’s death, I can hardly credit it yet. I thought he was with McDonall & did not look for his name in the Shanandoah fights. I hope he will turn up yet. He was one of the best & neither his friends nor the country can afford to lose him. We especially have reason to cherish his memory. This is all we can have left to is of many noble victims of this unnatural war. What sacrifices are required to vindicate the right. Blood must be spilt & hearts bleed. I think more & more each day how in- numerable are the horrors of war. Yet nations plunge into it as tho it were a pastime. People seem to regard it as a few pleasant days of drill & then a fight on some chosen spot where few are killed & this latter constitutes the chief hardship & horror. But it is impossible to portray war or tell what it is. Had any man, inexperienced, but told what

obstacles were to be overcome by Genl. McClellan to get to this point he would have said at once it was simply impossible. At every advantage it would have seemed impossible, & it has seemed as tho the elements had conspired ag’st him. We have had rain enough within two weeks to raise the stream that is usually fordable at this season or that a man could step across, so high that we have had to build bridges several hundred feet long & that these have been washed away nearly every night in the week. Yet this is a mere drop in the bucked of the work done. But I wont attempt to give an idea that language is [so] inadequate to convey. We are over the river now, came across Thursday & have now the advance of the right on the Richmond side of the river At the time of the battle we were on the other side up near Richmond & the creek was too high to be crossed therefore we escaped being engaged. I do not feel at liberty to give any idea of our positions but will reserve it for the future. Tell your Father that Every battle field & position is fixed in my mind so I can tell

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all about them when I come home. I have been all over the last battle field. Of all the filthy swamps on earth I believe that was the worst. You have had no full account of that battle yet. The European officers here acknowledge it was the fiercest fight know in history. It is the first battle on record where bayonets ever crossed. And there were more killed by the bayonet than was ever known before. The rebels were bent on driving us over the river. 270 were found dead in front of Rickets battery, the only one we could use. It was Magruder’s old battery & he was determined to capture it but failed. Our loss was probably double what the papers give I am told it was 500. It was almost wholly an infantry fight, which are always by far the most destructive. Artillery duels, like all duels, are comparatively safe. I had 130 shots fr a battery fired at my reg’t the 5th at easy range the other

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day & one man & myself were the only persons hit & we were not hurt much. The Prince De Joinville says Europeans will have nothing more to say about Yankee valor. An English officer of the Crimean war says those lines the other day fought nearer to each other than was ever known even before gun powder was used. I cant tell when we shall advance, no one knows the plans, but I believe Richmond will be taken in a different manner fr that which any one expects. I think the genius of Genl. McClellan is far superior to even the belief or hope of his most ardent advisors. He is a military prodigy. The highest genius & the greatest humanity are blended in him. The storms of the Peninsula have have not been his greatest obstacles, He has prejudices & injustice to deal with at Washington & all over the country. But all these com- bined seem only to develop his great genius. Good night darling. I have got to go out at daylight & it is late. Have had to sleep out on the ground for 2 nights but my tent is up now. I will take care of myself.

Yr Husband.W.