April 9th, 1862.
As the mail has not yet gone, I open my letter to write a
few more lines. We had a sad accident happen to our company this morning. We
were returning from picket from across the Shenandoah; the river was very high
and running like a mill-race. The only means of crossing was in a small
flat-boat which would carry but six; the boat was making one of its last trips,
when a man named Freeman, sitting in the stern, gave a jump, capsizing the
boat; four of the men swam ashore, but Freeman and our fourth sergeant were
drowned; their bodies have not yet been recovered. It is a very sad loss.
Sergeant Evans was a faithful, intelligent man, and we shall miss him a great
deal. The storm of sleet and rain still continues; everything and everybody
looks miserable and uncomfortable.
SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written
During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 52
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