Letter from William Hardy to his wife, Sallie Hardy; 15 August 1862

              Camp near Gordonsville, Virginia 
August 15th, 1862

My Dear Sallie,

I sent you a short letter a few days ago by Mr. Denmark, discharged from my company. It was written about midnight by a candle in the open air. That night (11th August), I did not sleep a wink. I sat up till twelve o'clock, writing out the final statements of the men discharged from my company. At one o'clock, we took up line of march and by daylight we were in Richmond, having marched eight miles. Then we took the train and at two o'clock p.m., we were in Gordonsville, having moved our whole brigade a distance of eighty miles in about twelve hours. Our baggage, of course, as they had to come by the roads with the wagons, not being with us. We bivouacked under the trees and as usual had quite a heavy rain on us, but we have plenty of splendid oilcloths captured from the Yankees and hence did not get wet. We remained [in] Gordonsville till yesterday when we moved out here four miles west of G[ordonsville] between the two railroads, where we bivouacked last night. This morning our baggage train arrived, so I now have a clean shirt, tent up, and am seated on a blanket