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duplicate [pencilled in]

Camp Winfield Scott
1st Ct. Artillery April 30

My Dear
I have just dropped in from the
rain with Chaplain Walker & seize a pen
to tell you how I am. This morning just as
I had left the Head Quarters who should I meet
but Dr Kirk & Messrs Toby & Hardin who had ridden up
from [illegible] Pt. in the storm to
see the works--How it did pour! But off
we started to Gen Heintzelman Head Quarters
through the lines to near where the pickets
lie and our seige Battery is planted. It was
fortunate for us that the fog was thick for
we were within short rifle range of the
rebels. We obtained plain sight of their fortifications
& their guns. We did expect & shot might
be sent from them, for we must have looked --
standing mounted as we did in a row at the farthest
edge of an orchard, with an orderly mounted,
very much like the
staff of some Gov't officers. The beauty of spring
time was about us, beautiful [illegible]