1 Bucks County Intelligencer, From the Ringgold (104th) Regiment. April 22, 1862 Page 3 Col. 4 1
LETTERS FROM OUR VOLUNTEERS.
From the Ringgold (104th) Regiment.
CAMP RIPLEY, NEAR NEWPORT NEWS, Va.,
April 15th, 1862.
Messrs. Editors :—We are still encamped in the peach
grove where we have been for two weeks. But the ques-
tion now before us is, will we stay here two weeks longer ?
From all appearances, I think our stay is but a short one,
for as soon as the roads are in a fit condition for traveling
we will be marching onward. Yes, McCellan will be
moving forward and onward with the great army of the
Potomac, which he now has under his command, to invade
Yorktown, Richmond, and all the Secession mud-holes in
the land of old Virginia! I have no doubt but what the
104th Regiment will have a choice to show their pluck
and courage at Yorktown. All of Keyes’s Corps except
Casey’s Division, are but four miles from Yorktown, wait-
ing for the “little Corporal.” (McClellan,) to utter forth
the great word—and then, they and we, in the presence of
bone of secession has not been broken before, we mean to
do it now, if it lays in our power so to do.
From what I can hear, Yorktown is more strongly forti-
fied, than any place that our troops have yet taken , and
with their large army and heavy guns, no doubt but what
we will have a quite a time of it, but we will fight till we
conquer—live or die. Here-ended the war in time of the
Revolution, and if we do not end Jeff. Davis & Co., here,
we will go on until we do end them.
We still go through the same routine of drills and
guard mounting as we did at at Carver Barracks.—Yester-
day our company took a trip down to the water’s edge,
called Hampton Roads, to take a view at the Merrimac
and the rebel camps. The Merrimac could not be seen,
but the rebel encampments on the other side of the river,
were plainly visible. We spent a short time there and
then marched back to our quarters, and at 1 o’clock the
Brigade were marched about half-way between our en-
campment and Hampton Roads for brigade-drill, on a
piece of ground that had the appearance of being struck
out ready for planting corn, but there had not been any
planted. To-day we are to have a Division-drill or review
at Newport News. The whole Division with their batter-
ies are to be present. I understand that the recruiting
officers have been ordered back to their respective com-
panies, but they have not made their faces visible yet, but
perhaps they have so many recruits that they have to
travel slow. Will your correspondents of the Third and
Fourth Reserves inform the 104th, if they have got
frightened and are going to be sent home ? Now, I think
the 104th would like to know if this be true, when they
are so near to Washington ; for I heard so—or heard they
had been disbanded and thought surely they must be
frightened !
Last week we had an old fashioned North-easterly rain-
storm, accompanied with some snow, which continued for
several days, making a very disagreeable time in camp.
We now have order to march to-morrow; I suppose
towards Yorktown. Expect more when we reach our des-
tination. Yours, Respectfully, T. C.
[The following letter was received from Company G,
104th
Regiment
of Pennsylvania Volunteers, First Brigade, (Casey’s
Division,)
Fortress Monroe, Va., addressed to a correspondent in
Buckingham ]
CAMP NEAR NEWPORT NEWS, April 13th, 1862.
Esteemed Friend :—As we have made somewhat of a
change in our position since I last wrote to you, as I pre-
sume you have heard ere this—the seat of war has made
quite a change in the army of the Potomac ; and the eyes
of the nation are turned with anxious expectancy to the
town, which is to be for a second time, the scene of one
of the grandest dramas in the great cause of human free-
dom in the history of the Republic! Need I say, that
town is Yorktown? The rebels are concentrating a large
force in that vicinity, with the intention one would suppose
of making a desperate stand for the most unholy of all
causes—the right of holding property in man! Reflect-
ing upon the fate which is in store for them in case of
defeat, there may be some bloody work to be done before,
we obtain possession of the city, but the great cause of
human liberty must not for a moment be checked in its
progress, no matter what blood and treasure it may cost.
We have been hourly expecting a battle between the
Merrimace and Monitor. All the shipping about the
Fortress has been removed to a safe distance. Yesterday
and the day before, the Merrimac could be plainly seen
from the Fortress. She was in company with some five or
six rebel war steamers. They were lying about five miles
from us, and appeared to be inviting the “ Cheese-Box”
to an encounter. The latter was not however to be drawn
into an engagement when the odds would be against her,
although she did not appear to be afraid to meet the
enemy on fair terms. She maintained, however, her
position throughout ,which was about half a mile from the
two monitor guns, Lincoln and Union. I expect, if the
Merrimac had ventured to attack the Monitor where she
then lay in the stream, there would have been such a
thundering of artillery as the world never heard before.
To the eye of a beholder when standing within a few yards
of these two immense pieces of cannon where they are
mounted on their carriages—the latter being set upon a
railroad track, which extends for short distance along
the sandy shore they present the appearance of grim
sentinels guarding the solitary coast, and woe betide the
vessel that passes between them and the Rip-Raps ! With
each gun is a sentinel to keep visitors at a proper distance
and “hands off.” You ask the guard, what is the weight
of the ball fired by that cannon ? and the answer is : Five
hundred and seventy pounds ! This satisfies you that
when they open there will be no school boy play ! But I
must draw to a close, with the best respects to my Bucks
county friends. Truly yours, &c.