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,
he  make 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-
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-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
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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