The Highland Weekly News: Letter from the Ohio 60th

THE HIGHLAND WEEKLY NEWS:
HILLSBOROUGH, HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO
MAY 29, 1862

LETTER FROM THE OHIO 60TH

FRANKLIN, VA., MAY 18, 1862

When I last wrote you, we were at New Creek Station. Since we left that place we have been experiencing some of the hardships of a soldier's life. This place is seventy miles south of there, in Pendleton Co. We received marching orders at New Creek on the 5th, and went as far as Petersburg, where we remained until last Monday, awaiting the arrival of Blenker's division, which joined us on Saturday and Sunday. We were expecting to have a fight near this place, as a large body of rebels under Jackson, supposed to be 15,000 strong, who had pursued a small body of our troops from McDowell, were in the vicinity. But we were disappointed. As soon as they knew that Fremont, with force sufficient to make us equal to them in numbers, had arrived, they fell back, and are now perhaps thirty to forty miles further south.

The "Mountain Department" seems to be gaining in interest and importance. Fremont is gathering around him a large army, equal in material to any in the service, and the rebels having been driven from their strong -holds in Eastern Virginia, will doubtless attempt to dispute our passage into East Tennessee. If so, you may look for stirring news from this quarter. We will perhaps be on the march again, in two or three days. Our regiment and the 8th Va., which hold the honorable position of the advanced corps of Fremont's army, marched out four miles to where the rebels had been encamped, this morning.

There are between twenty-five and thirty thousand men here now. Most of the male inhabitants of this region have gone into the Secession army, or fled further South. Franklin is the county seat of Pendleton county. It is, like most of the towns of Virginia, a miserable, dirty hole.

What there is of it is meeting the fate of Secessia in general. Property of all kinds is left without protection. Hearth stones which, but for the madness of the rebel leaders, might have been the scenes of happiness, are now deserted and desolate. The few that are left here will certainly starve if the war does not soon end. There is scarcely anything to eat in the country, and nothing will be raised this summer, as the fences are all gone, and there is nothing being done in the way of farming. Surely Secession is a dear experiment, and will teach the South a lesson which it will not soon forget.

We are expecting to be paid again in a few days. Most of the boys intend sending their money home by the State pay agent, whose duty it is by a late act of the Legislature, to deposit it in the State treasury, to be sent to the county treasuries, where it will be subject to the orders of those for whom it is intended. The health of the regiment is reasonably good.

Yours truly,

HEMAN
[Heman B. Huggins]

Huggins, Heman B. "Letter from the Ohio 60th." The Highland Weekly News: Hillsborough, Highland, County, Ohio; May 29, 1862.

Microfilmed article contributed by Theodore E. Lewis.