Pearce, Edgar to Frederic

[draft]
Pittsburgh Tenn
Apr 17th 1862
Dear Brother
I recd your letter last Sunday morning and will freely admit that I was very much pleased to see that you had really devoted a whole sheet to your unworthy brother away down South in Dixie and in the midst of Secesh, but although it is a excitting [sic] fact, it is true that we are in the midst of Secesh for they lay all round us in the [ship] of death, an now only a few rods from our camp could show, and it [uncovered], over 250 dead bodies and all secech, we did not bury Union men & rebels together at all, and all round in smaller holes, that have found 50 to 100 in a hole, a great number of them were killed on Sunday & when I rode on the field on Friday last dead bodies could still be seen lying round in the brush, It was an awful 24 hours work, but thank fortune now all is quiet and we sit un alarmed in our own tents, & in our old Camp but preparations are still going on for an advance and we know not at what time the [ball] may open again in all its fury, We were directly in the advance, but, now they have moved parts of our army to the front and we are back of the center, and cannot be surprised as we were before, Beauregard is reported to have an [illegible] army in his hands and it is generally supposed in "Military Circles," that he will at least make a desperate resistance, if he does not make another attack himself, he is said to have an army of 120,000 at his command, but he may not hold this number, 5 rebel deserters that came here a day or two ago say that he used all the eloquence he was master of to get his men to make an advance on us again but was unable to get his men to come up to him, If this is true [2] it shows that his men are sensible to the last, for the probability is that they will get whipped most outrageously, if they do try it again for we are the conquerors, and they are whipped and disheartened and they [illegible illegible illegible] of arms with the "Lincoln Yankees,' We have a great deal more artillery than we had then, several large seige [sic] guns have come up & are being moved to the advance, they are drawn by 12 and 16 large horses, now we have Buell & Halleck, and all their forces operating with Grant, We are flushed with Victory they are disheartened by defeat, they were too confident on last Sunday evening, a week ago, when Beauregard telegraphed home that this was a second Manassas, that the Yankees fough with stubbornness, and with the bravery of despair, but the southern blood was too much for them, and that the Federals were completely whipped, [strikeout] on the next morning, he would take an kill the whole of the Federal forces, and that Buells forces did not get here in time to take any part of the action, this report he wrote in our camp and on Federal Paper, as he says, and he did write it in our [Liet] his tent within 50 yards of the place I now sit, he made that tent his head quarters on Sunday night, and on Monday morn he started his whole army as he had [thot] to drive us all into the river, but he found the Federal Army advancing to meet him, and the ball opened as the two army were approaching each other, little did he think that at ½ past 3 his [forces] would have too [pushed] back on Corinth, and his boasted army whipped, [So] like to get a copy of his next report, I think that would tell a story slightly different, and I don't think that it was written on one of our Camps either, not exactly, the deserters also state that since the last fight they have had nothing at all eat but 3 crackers a day & a cup of coffee, but at the same time they [3] say that he has made a new levy of 5 day troops, and he has now several La & Miss regts composed of 30 day Men, but they are disheartened and wont pitch in with the energy & confidence that they did a week ago, & they did fight and fight well on Sunday there is no getting round this, and Genl Beauregard is an able Genl, or he would not have cought us in the way he did before, I cant help admiring him as a Military man, though I do wish some one had been lucky enough to shoot him, however Sidney A Johnston [sic], who was the Com in Chief was killed, and I have stood over his body, it was interred under control of Maj Christopher of the Ohio 6th Guthrie's, Greys a nice mound was made and enclosed in Palings, and that is all that is left of that able Genl, And now one thing while I think of it in all the papers that I have seen so far, the 77th has either not been mentioned at all, or else mentioned as running, the Chicago paper especially say in two or three places that the 77th are often firing and volley and in one place that the 77th broke and even without firing a shot, and left [Souders] Battery to its fate, now all this is one of the most outrageous lies that [ever] was get off in a civilized country, the fact of the case is that the 77th fired 40 rounds of ammunition before they left their old camp the dead bodies that I found in our lines on Monday all show that they stood up to the work, and as to that Battery, our little Maj. [Bird], with two of own men took one their 12 pounders [over] 30 yards and put it in position for them, and they supported that Battery until the rest of our forces, were a hundred yards back of them & then they fell back too, and not before, they were in the action until 2 o'clock PM & then did not move, but, as to our Maj, he is the soul & life of the this regt and is made of as well [illegible] [stuf] as there is to be found in the U.S. [4] a regiment like him would be almost invincible and could cut their way through almost anything, and now as to Col. Hildebrand he is the same man on the field that he is off it, as cool & calm as you pleasd, he would hardly consent to dodge a cannon ball he is as brave a man as one would want to be under, still I dont think he has the energy or decision that our little [Bird] has, nor anything like it, and now in regard to Col. De [Hues], he is not thought much of, one thing is certain he made his aboding place at the river most all sunday & monday, I don't think he would do to bet on, at any rate it would not do to send up very high on him, one thing shows that our Regt fought & that is that our morning report shows 49. killed and 150 wounded and we have several that were taken prisoners, among this Capt AW. Mc Cormick & Cap A Chandler, new regts that [come] cant get used up in this way and another thing is equally certain and that is that our regt is not well officered at present, it ought to be [washed all out], out of all of them there is but one now fit for duty, Capt [Beasder], Smith, Lutgin, [Fornatin], Robinson, and Sipson, never were worth a snap and aint yet, the only ones engaged were [Suorns], Mason, Chandler, & Mc Cormick & Robinson, two of them are prisoners and are wounded & one sick scared to death, [2M] still talks of giving up the regimental business and going in on Brig he told Col. He wanted him to send in a recommendation for an appointment for me, & Col said he would be sure and do that, and would send on by Curtis, whether he did or not I do not know, but I may get up a little yet, and dont much care if I do, but their is one thing I would like and that is to get a discharge & then I could make more money in a month than a 2 M could in six, there never was as good a chance in the [5] world to make money as there is for an outsider, right here in this army, a man that is half sharp can make it pay hand over hand, apples, candy, nicknacks, of any kind, canned fruit, or almost anything will go off as fast as they can be handed out and then the baking business, will pay almost any amount, little loaves are selling here at 15 cents as fast and good deal faster than they could be baked in 3 or 4 of their larger portable ovens, some of our [illegible] have made alone a hundred dollars out of 5 in two weeks, I found I was running a ground, and so got a couple of barrels of apples at 7 per [bbl] and got a boy to sell them out for me, and without dirtying my hands made about 30 dollars in a day or two I lost 25, or [illegible] to the [river] and got ½ a dozen more, two boys sold them out for me, they brot $90, so after paying each [I] 42 which I borrowed and giving the boys $10, [struck: a piece,] to sell them had about $40 left, and this was only in and a half days work, and I did [illegible] them, so there was about $70 in a week, well I don't have much time and so cant do much of this kind of work, but if I was out of this, I could make $15 every day and not half try, that's what the matter, for prices are high up here or rather down here, go on a steamboat and pay 50 cents for 1 cup of coffee & a biscuit, Ive done it several times, yesterday & paid a steamboat darky 75 cnts to cut my hair & shave me & these are regular prices, rather steep but it [illegible], If I get hard up an soon make $50 more, [Chis] watch I could have sold [illegible] [time] if I waited until next payday & the same with [your] pistol, but I had the misfortune the other day to leave all the cartridges, and also my own Colt, together with all I had besides, I have nothing now and dont care a snap [6] for I have nothing to care of, I did pick up a a shirt and a pair of drawers & bought 3 Hakfs & now I am all right, If Father is coming you might get him to bring me our [check] shirt & a couple of Hakfs, and that is about all I want, Oh yes ½ dozen heavy cotton socks, and a pair of [illegible illegible] slippers no 7, tell him to bring as little as possible, and I would not come if I was him until after the next battle was one, for their must be another big fight before long, and I would not come until it was over for we may get mixed all up again, and it is by no means as comfortable as might be imagined, to only have one suit of clothes, and half to as I did, wade all round in this mud to my knees, and then sleep on the ground & in the mud & have it rain all night as it does occasionally, Ive tried it on the ground & in the rain and no shelter at all, [three] times lately, & the the sights that have been seen round here some times, are calculated to make a man sick, I have rode over this battle field and through the dead bodies, when the stench was so intolerable that my company, and old soldiers at that, had to throw their dinners all overboard, and that on horseback too, but then I have the faculty of taking things just about as they come, and a pretty good constitution & stomach too, and so I get along tolerably, & I had human bodies for my landmarks from Monday till Friday night, & by that time they were so bloated that you could hardly tell what they were, and Union men at that, I saw several that had been killed by the explosive of a shell and lain all in a bunch, literally torn all to pieces, head gone and bodies cut right in two and in one place when our men had a [battery] of two pieces, that the [7] enemy and advancing to take & they loaded the [pieces] with 8 charges of canister and as they marched up fired and [mowed] a path clear through, they fell back & then rallied, as they came up again the [dose] was repeated, [and] like effect, and in this place the 91 bodies that laid piled round shewed what effect our men had on the rebels, I have my possession a spur taken from one of the celebrated rebel Texan Cavalry, the rowels are about an inch long and the diameter of the spur proper about 2 ½ inches, it is an awful ugly looking thing, I am also using a secesh canteen, but all these things are common, I could have had some pretty shot guns, or rifles or most any thing out of captured staff but have no way of carrying the [illegible] round, I saw some of the confederate stamps they are blue and look a good deal like our 1 cent, confederate states of America, above & five cents below, with Davis [illegible] in the center, this reminds me stamps are scarce down here and as I have a [illegible] that is not worth a cent here, I inclose it to you, if it is of any value there now send me some stamps for it,
How is the weather up your way, it is as hot as blue blazes down here, and what with half buried horses & half [burnt ditto] not quite as salubrious as might be, but there is nothing like getting used to all these things,
Tell [Chis], to hold on a little and I may be 2M yet, if I am, I can make it all right for him, and we can make more money outside than in, If I should happen to be so lucky Ill let him know [instance], but it is a good deal uncertain still I guess, but if there [8] is a vacancy I shall fill it,
I did not get but 7 letters last Sunday, thats all, but then they had been accumulating for a month of Sundays, I got one from Nebuchadnezzar the Hebrew King of the Babylonians, dated at New Madrid, he says he had not been well for some time and been laid up almost all day, he wound up in this way, "your last question is impertinent and I omit answering it," I don't know what my last question was and so don't know what he is talking about but I expect I was joking him about Sallie Grand, by the way give Jullie my respects, tell her I went to Newport on [illegible] to see her and she went to [illegible] to get out of my way, [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] [illegible], but soldiers luck, How are your chicks and all the rest of you, I expect to come [home] some time this summer, Have you got any thing for me to do, [illegible] up a job, Ill be there before you know it, I heard from Frank he says he is coming to Marietta this summer, and I heard from - [well] [around] the, and may be more, as you think it is not worth while, O wont bother you any more for awhile to write & be sure to have room for me in the shanty when I come back,
Now say I have not written a letter as long as the moral law, and not half as good, now try your hand at it and if you cant do it get [Hat], & Father & Mother & [illegible] [illegible] [illegible] & [Harry], & [illegible] & [Chas] to help you & then sir if you can write as long a letter as your
Affectionate Brother
Edgar Pearce
P.S. family [doormant]
[envelope]
F.E. Pearce Esq
Marrietta
Washington Co
[Bank] Ohio