CIVIL WAR LETTER - 84th Pennsylvania Infantry, DESCRIBES BATTLE Cumberland, MD !

Description

CIVIL WAR LETTER
Civil War Letter by Soldier in Co. I, 84th Pennsylvania Infantry
This Civil War soldier letter was written by 27 year-old Jackson Potter (1834-1862), the son of John Potter (1807-1880) and Mary Rishel (1813-1879) of Luthersburg, Clearfield county, Pennsylvania. Jackson enlisted on 1 October 1861 in
Co. I, 84th Pennsylvania Infantry
and he died on 11 July 1862 at Alexandria, Virginia.
Most of the letters were written to his father, or his sister, Jane Potter (1839-1905), and a few to other family members such as his brother, William Marion Potter (1842-1916).
Of Potter’s service, his commanding officer wrote, “the company joins with me in [conveying to you, his father,] that they have lost a true soldier and a pleasant companion.”
Transcription
Headquarters, Cumberland, Maryland
[Monday,] January 13th 1862
It is with pleasure that I take my pen to write you a few lines to let you know that I am well, hoping that you are all in the state of health. We are now in Cumberland, Alleghany county, Maryland. We left Hancock on last Friday night [10 January 1862] about seven o’clock and marched nearly all night until we gave out for it was very muddy and we dropped down along side of the road and slept awhile and then started. We was the worst crippled set of men I ever saw for we had to march on a stone pike. It was a forty mile march and we had nothing to eat. Some of us got in Saturday and they was coming in all day yesterday and they was not all in yet.
Yesterday we heard very heavy cannonading off in Virginia but we have joined the battle and took two pieces of cannon and some prisoners and the rest of the battle, I have not heard from. The rebels have left Hancock where we was. They had about twenty thousand. On Sunday their general came over with a flag of truce for us to surrender everything up to them but he says now that he does not know what to make of the blue bellied yankees for he thought he had us surrounded and we slipped out—never lost a man. They lost not less than a hundred and the road was laying full of dead horses from Hancock to Bath where we first commenced to fight. Our battery shells into Bath six miles.
I have nothing more to write. I want you to write to me. I have not got an answer from the two last letters I have wrote. I cannot write anymore for I have no money to write anymore. I got a good chance to send a letter with one of E. Ashenfelter’s or I could not have wrote.
Your son, — Jackson Potter
Direct your letter to Cumberland, Pa., Allegany county, Maryland, 84th Regt. Penn. Vol. in care of Captain Ogden
Please hand this over to Mr. John Potter and oblige. Yours, — Jackson Potter
TERMS
.00 postage in the United States.  We accept Paypal.
Postage combined for multiple purchases.  Please wait for me to send the invoice, otherwise you will pay a higher rate.
For International buyers, we utilize eBay’s Global Shipping Program.  We had too many packages sent via the post office go missing.  So we believe this program will be safer for us and for you.
We are members of the American Philatelic Society, the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, the Confederate Stamp Alliance and the Illinois Postal History Society.
We only sell genuine, original letters (no copies or reproductions).  Some of our letters have been transcribed and nicely presented for future genealogists and history buffs on the Spared & Shared blog.
We have been selling on eBay since 1998.   BID WITH CONFIDENCE !