Dear Wife,-

I have received your letter of the 11th inst., also the papers and they gave me great pleasure. I am sorry that you give yourself so much uneasiness about me. It is wrong, as I am under God's protecting care the same as if I were at home. In health or sickness, in peace or war, at home or on the battlefield, He will take care of me. I feel that no harm can come to me unless He permits it. I feel perfectly safe here. There was a battle at Boonesville the 16th. We heard the roll of musketry and the boom of cannon very distinctly. The men doing duty on Maryland Heights saw it in the distance. It was about four miles away. The account of the battle which was in the paper you sent me, you will remember was one and one-half miles from our Camp. I saw General McClellan a few days ago. We were on duty in the road when he and his staff passed.

October 19th.

After writing the above yesterday I had the day to myself as the whole company went on duty on Maryland Heights and I was left in camp. I got a pass, went onto the Heights and from there to Harpers Ferry and back again to Camp. I walked about ten miles, was very tired but was well paid for my trouble. It was of these Heights that Jackson said if he could gain them he could defy the world and one would think so as they are all rocks, abrupt cliffs and precipices. I could see in every direction and they are of great advantage to the army holding them as it can telegraph by signal from one station to another. As far as the eye could see, there were tents in every direction,- thousands upon thousands, and it is wonderful to see how many can be provided for. When I got to the Ferry there I saw train after train coming and going continuously and the streets filled with wagons so that one could hardly pass. I crossed the Potomac on a Pontoon Bridge, the first I had seen. Pontoons are small boats anchored in the river about ten feet apart with timbers laid from one to the other and plank laid on these timbers and then another timber laid on these planks and lashed by ropes to the lower timbers holding all fast together from one side of the river to the other. These bridges are moved with the army. After I had satisfied my curiosity I returned to Camp.