Dearest
We have passed through another encounter with the enemy and providentially have escaped unharmed. My Corps left Bridgeport on Tuesday the 27th and marched some fifteen or sixteen miles encamped at a place called Whitinder. You can hardly imagine a rougher country – rocks, hills and mountains with deep valleys. We met with coal miners on the top of the high peaks with an arrangement of a car, tramway and rope to let down the coal. [Illegible name] had a log-house […] one large woman and several small children. How poor, how filthy, how ignorant the people are. One abandoned house at the Depot was pretty fair. It had two rooms. We had it swept and a fire built. With [illegible] well out and some misgivings about the enemy we had a fair night. […]
Oliver Otis Howard to his wife, Elizabeth Ann Waite [Oliver Otis Howard Papers]