I received a letter from you yesterday dated the 27th May. It was sent to Petersburg & by that means missed me. We are now camped on the York River railroad about 4 miles from Richmond. We got here yesterday after being on the outposts since Monday in a swamp knee deep in water all the time. Everything is quiet on the lines today. There was a pretty sharp artillery fight yesterday on our left without either gaining any advantage. In our fight on Sunday our regiment lost 8 killed & 37 wounded. When we were returning from the field on Sunday the commanding general, Hall of N.C., drew our regiment up in line & thanked them for their gallant conduct during the day.

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The 53rd Va. Regiment was on our left during the engagement and at the first fire broke & fled but were afterwards rallied and we were compelled in consequence to fall back for a time to hinder the enemy from flanking us. We retook some of our men from the yankees who told us that the yankees had lost 150 men in the regiment opposed to the 14th alone. I think my company behaved as well as any I saw. When the general ordered us to fall back in consequence of our flank being recovered by the flight of the 53rd, I mistook the order & instead of falling back to a swamp behind us I stopped my company in a road fifty yards in front of it & was considerably exposed in consequence of it.

We stayed in the enemy camp Saturday night & the men loaded their knapsacks with quantities of clothing & blankets & the next day when we were ordered to the field the general ordered us to leave our knapsacks behind. Whilst we were gone fresh troops were ordered up & finding our knapsacks on the ground filled with clothes that we had gotten from the enemy’s camp, they completely emptied them & my men in consequence without clothing.

You tell Sandy & Wilkins that if they should like to take a part in a fight to come down & they can be accomodated. It seems to be the general impression that there will be no Big fight around Richmond but a series of small engagements until either the enemy or ourselves are compelled to retreat.

I am pretty well but I don’t think that I can continue so long under the exposure which I have been under for the last few days.

I remain Dear Father your affectionate Son, Charles Bruce, Jr.

Camp on the York River Railroad,

June 8, 1862

Dear Father,

We are still at the same encampment as we were when I wrote last. No advance movement on either side as yet. The enemy are throwing a breastwork on the railroad about 2 miles below us & I expect will make the woods about here too hot to hold us in a few days. There was a slight skirmish a half a mile ahead of us early this morning in which we drove in their pickets. There is heavy firing going on at this time on our left but whether we are just firing off our muskets or not I cannot tell. Our General sent us word yesterday that if any of our officers wished to go out on a scouting expedition, we had only to notify our outside pickets & go ahead right into the yankees lines if we wished. Now that the Battle of Seven Pines is over I have heard a great many persons asking what we gained by the victory. We whipped the enemy, took their camps, captured sixteen pieces of artillery and a good many stores both commissary & ammunition but on the other hand we lost from 25 hundred to 3 thousand men Killed & wounded & fell back to our former lines. It was reported here this morning that the enemy was throwing his forces on the right of our line across the railroad. Both parties seem to be afraid of each other, especially about this point–as both have thrown up a good many entrenchments here.

Mr Terry, Wilkins’ overseer, came down yesterday & told me that the dike at “Wilbon” had given away and that Wilkins would lose his corn crop.

Is Ballard in Richmond now for I should like to see him if he is. I sent Rob [Charles' personal slave who went with him in service] up to Halifax today to bring down something to eat for it is almost impossible to get anything here in the midst of all this army. We have been without tents ever since we left Petersburg & we have to have our baggage 3 or 4 miles in our rear. I have been sleeping or rather lying down for two weeks without taking off my clothes or my shoes. By the way Edgar Carrington, son of Mr. Paul Carrington, was killed on Saturday by a piece of a shell striking him in the groin.

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