Letter written by Henry Welch, corporal in the 123rd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company K, to his uncle and aunt from At the front, Georgia, June 9, 1864

---

PAGE IMAGEAt the front, Georgia
June 9th -64 Dear Uncle (Tanner, Franklin) and Aunt (Tanner, Franklin (Mrs., Polly C.)) (Tanner, Polly C. (Mrs. Franklin Tanner)) ,

After
so long a time I have got a
chance to write another letter
to you, or to begin one
at least I am well and
all right so far, and in the
best of spirits, it is just
forty three day's since we left
Elk  river (Elk River) and we have been
marching or fighting all the
while we have not stopped
in any one place over three
day's at a time, and but once
or twice as long as that.
we have seen some very
hard fighting but our
regt has been lucky so
far, although we have

---

PAGE IMAGE been in the thickest of
the fighting we have lost
very few men in our
company two has been
killed and five wounded
so that they went to the
hospital, several more have
been scratched or bruised.
I have had some pretty close
calls but have kept on my
[pins?] so far. at Resaca (Resaca, Georgia) we
lay under the fire of the
rebs cannon for a long
time. they sighted them on
our company every time,
we lay on a knoll so they
had fair sight at us, we
could see them load as
plain as could be then
the flash and the shell
would come screaming
through the air sometimes
they would just skip

---

PAGE IMAGE over us and again they
strike in the ground
in front of us and bound
over us covering us with
dirt. one come bounding
in amongst us and his
a fellow lying beside me
on the shoulder and broke
it then it struck my
hand but did no hurt
only made it bleed a little,
it luckily did not
explode if it had probably
I should not be writing
to you now, very few
of their shell bursted or
they would have killed
many of us, our Division
had a desperate fight at
Altoona  mountain (Altoona Mountain) about
two weeks ago, the Division
lost eighteen hundred
men killed and wounded

---

PAGE IMAGE so the first account said
but now they have got
it down to fourteen
hundred. there was about
7,000 men in the Division
when we went into the
fight. we were fighting
two hour's and a half. you
can imagine by our loss
that we were in a tight
place. Joe Hooker (Hooker, Joseph (General)) 's men
have done nearly all the
fighting that has been
done in this department
so far and they are the
boys that can do it too
these [slash?] western men
don't try to run us down
as much as they did, they
begin to think that the
Potomac men can fight
after all. Col. McDougal (McDougal (Colonel))
lost one leg and started

---

PAGE IMAGE for home it is feared
that he will not live
to get there. I cannot
tell you exactly where
we are now. but we
are somewhere about
ten miles from the
Chatahoosa (Chattahoochee)  river (Chattahoochee River) our
picket line is in speaking
distance of the rebel pickets
we exchange paper's with
them every day, they think
or did think that Lee (Lee, Robert E. (General)) was
whipping Grant (Grant, Ulysses S. (General)) badly they
say that they are going to
drive us out of Georgia (Georgia) of
course we are anxious to
have them do it. but
the thing can't be done
easy. they say that Hooker (Hooker, Joseph (General))
's men fight diferent (different)

---

PAGE IMAGE from what these western
troops do, they wanted to
know if Hooker (Hooker, Joseph (General)) 's men
were not mostly regular
soldier's instead of volenteers (volunteers)
the weather is getting very
warm down here it is
awful to march. we get
good new's from Grant (Grant, Ulysses S. (General))
every thing looks favorable
for this campaign to close
the war. the boy's of your
acquaintance are all well
I do not think of any thing
more to write so I will
close. my love to all
please write soon

Good Bye From
Your Nephew Henry Welch (Welch, Henry) PS.

I will write to you or
home as often as I can and
let you know how we are
all getting along we can hardly ever get
a chance to send our letters
if we can write. Henry (Welch, Henry)