Letters of Rev. John W. Alvord

Heaven— God loves the children as he did the fathers. Our cause is a holy one. Think it not then strange that our soldiers can be brave under such combined inspiration. Yesterday I went along the whole of the left wing quite to the James river. In the swamps the camps are in a miserable condition I fear will soon to become sickly, but they cannot be otherwise placed and retain [illegible] their cover covered position. As you come to Warwick Court House & then pass along the banks of Warwick river to its confluence with the James the country becomes more elevated & open & at the same time is yet still is thoroughly sheltered by the strip of woodland along the margin of the stream. Some deserted plantations here are very large & have been highly cultivated. One contains 2200 acres & was worked by a hundred negroes. Broad fields have here been plowed & even planted with the spring crops & I [illegible] fed my horse in a green wheat field of at least one hundred acres. The young

A rare group I assure you, & I rode away on a swift gallop to overtake my friends, thanking the Lord too! for his grace to these least of his disciples & even now the passage rings in my ears _"I have been young and now am old yet have I once seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread." During the day I went quite into the abandoned fortifications of the enemy on our left & could see distinctly where our cannon that had riddled their dwellings & warehouses across the river. About three miles of their work along Warwick river seem to be abandoned & I see no reason why we could not pass around their flank. They are evidently concentrating near Yorktown & in defense of York river the possession of which they very well know we exceedingly covet .

Am putting all the Regiments in connection with either with my depot at Washington or Fortress Monroe & to miscellaneous corps who do not get mails regularly & distribute personally

When I come back I intend to have a wagon if I can beg it of any body. I want it for carrying my stuff reading matter more abundantly than I can do horseback for little as well as delicacies & comforts for the sick & wounded in these field hospitals in many of which I find great destitution & suffering & also for my shutter and bed when night comes overtakes me.

By the way, within the last two days I have seen both Lewis & Capt Wheeler. They are very well & in good spirits. The former in a pleasant camp on the banks of Warwick river & just putting up his little lodge 4 feet by 8 of logs-- & the latter about the center of the army with whom I look a luxurious dinner of boiled sole leather half & hard tack bread -- very good with a good appetite.

Lewis sent his love to you all . He appears He appears quite as well I think as any of his fellow officers-- Neither of these friends are