H’d Qr’s 16th Vt. Vols Centerville Jan’y 4th/62My Darling Wife

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We came out here to do picket duty New Years day and shall return next Thursday, making 7 days. It has been very pleasant so far, but has the ap- pearance of rain now. There is a detachment of cavalry here also. They had a skrimmage with the rebel cavalry day before yesterday within sight of us. I have a house to stop in & we like very well here. The picketing is light & we drill every day. My health is good. This country is perfectly barren. The enemy had one hundred & fifty thousand men here last winter and the armies have been back & forth over the ground so many times there is almost nothing left now. The village consisted of about a dozen respectable houses, two churches

a mill & the usual appendages of a village but all in ruins now excepting a few dwelling houses & they are badly dilapidated. Not a green thing to be seen. The forests all cut down for various purposes. Earth works everywhere. It is the strongest natural military position I ever saw- but is easily flanked. That is the reason probably why there has never been a great battle here. The heavy fighting has always been beyond here a few miles among the defiles] about Bull Run, with the exception of the Chantilly fight when Genl. Kearny was killed. Then the enemy got around our flank here. It is astonishing to see what an amount of labor the rebels did here last year. There works are every where. They had splendid barracks & they are now standing out towards Bull Run. We burned a good many the other day. We apprehended an advance of the enemy this way the other day but it dont look much like it now!

I love you my darling angel. I wish this war might end & we be to-gether. I wish I knew when where & how. Yet I should hardly dare know. I will write again soon.

Yr devoted husband Wheelock.