Great civil war letter with patriotic letter cover! Halltown Va. February 7th 1864
My Dear Sister
Your kind and very welcome letter of the 1st inst came to hand in due season glad to hear from you & that you were all in good health. On last Sabbath one regt of our Brigade the (139th) had orders to march off the same day for a place called New Creek in the Cumberland valley. The rebels having made a demonstration on the Baltimore & Ohio R.R. burning three bridges cutting the telegraph wires &c. reports come in to camp that the 139th had a fight with the Rebels under the command of Imboden but cannot say as to the truth of the report as the regt has not returned to camp. We have been reinforced during the past week by three regiments of cavalry so are pretty well prepared to give the confederates a warm reception if they feel like trying our strength. We have a force of about 8000 men out on a ten days scout mostly cavalry. Last night one of the horses came into camp riderless is covered with blood sent out a detachment to find the man found his body about 2 miles out with a bullet through his cheeks & his face beaten very badly. The had been killed by guerillas his horse being in poor condition he had fallen back some distance in the rear of his company & was caught by them. Our regiment went on picket last Tuesday morning & was relieved on Friday everything quiet along the lines while on picket one night there was two young ladies came into our lines said that they were engaged to be married to two men belonging to our Brigade and as their parents objected they had run away (fond of the romantic were they not) I am glad that Budd is in for temperance. Alvord is a second lieutenant of Co. A. in our regt. How do you like him? I feel very sorry to hear of Miss McFarland’s death and of Uncle George’s illness but am at a loss to know whether it is Uncle George or Duncan please tell me which. I am in good health my dear close write soon My love to all
Your loving brother B. C. Stanford