Camped at Catletts Station Va 24th/63 [Oct.] Dear Brother & Sister I rec. your kind letter of the 11th inst. the 19th while on the March to this place from near Centre -ville in persuite of the Johney Rebes. I can assure you that I was very happy to hear from you, but I was sory to hear that your Babe was so Sick. I Pray God it may be spared to you for many a year yet, and live to grow up to be a useful Man in Society. You must write to me again very soon and let me know how it gets along. I trust this letter will find it very much better, and it seemes to me just as though such must be the case, but let us ever be resigned to the Will of God, for he sais, those that put their trust in the Lord shall never faile, and again, all things work together for good to those that love the Lord and blessed be the Name of the Lord. I was in hopes that that Picture of your Babe you sent me, was to be mine to keep, but I will send it to you in this letter, and when the little fellow gets well again (which I trust will be the case) I would like to have you give it to me again or if you do not wish to part with this one have a nother taken as soon as you can and send to me. I feel very Sory to part with it, you must be sure and write to me as soon as you get this letter. I am happy to hear that business is so good in Franklin at this time. I am sory to hear that Alfred talks of moving to Lake Village, though if it would be better for him to Move there, I do not blame him for so doing. Lake Village is a Smart little place and it may be better for him to live there, but if they Build in Franklin business will be better there than it has been. I hope Orison will be Steady and do well with his father, hemake a Smart Man if he would only Steady down. I am happy to hear that Father has plenty of work now, and prospects of its contin -uing so. We are expecting 30 Conscr- _________________________________________ 3 -ipts here soon to join our Battery. That will entitle us to two more Guns, we have but 4 now. The two were taken away because we had not Men enough to work 6 Guns. I shall be glad when we get the Guns and new Men it will our duties lighter for the rest of us. I will not attempt at this time to tell you or give an account of Gen Lee outflanking Mead, and Meads falling back on the Centreville Hights and offering Gen Lee Battle there and Lees refuse -ing to fight and finaly falling back across the Rappahannock (and as is supposed) across the Rapidan Rivers and distr -oying the Orange and Alexandra R R to the Rappahannock, all this there is no need of my telling you for you can and probably have got a nuch better account of it in the Papers than I can give you. The Rebes suffered much more on our Retreat than we did. I see 5 Guns that our Men took from _______________________________________ 4 the Rebes, and there were some 5 or 6 more taken, and I see some 500 or 600 Prisoners in all and there were nearly as many more taken. I see 460 in one lot, the most we have suffered by this move is the distruction of some 18 or 20 Miles of the R Road I spoke of. I can not tell whether we shall advance any further or not, it will probably depend on circumstances. The Spiret of the Army is good and the Conscripts fight tip top. I heard they got so hot at it (fighting) at Bristo that they fired on the Prisoners before they could be Stoped. It is a Stormy uncomfortable day to day, but I manage to get along very well. I rec. a letter from Laura at the same time I did from you. Give her and Family my love and tell her I will write to her soon, my health is excellent and Spirets good. The Prospects of soon Crushing the Rebelion looks encourageing, to me at least, now be sure and write me as soon as you get this wount you, and God Bless you all and keep you and your little one as in the hollow of his hand and enable you to bare up under all disappointment is the Prayer of your Affectionate Brother T C Cheney