The following letter was written by Daniel Rowe (1837-1874), the son of Abraham Rowe (1796-1865) and Margaret Gunsallus (1806-1850) of Valentine, LaGrange county, Indiana. Daniel enlisted on 8 October 1861 in Co. H, 44th Indiana Infantry. He was discharged from the service as a sergeant on 23 November 1864. The 44th Indiana was organized at Fort Wayne and participated in the taking of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh, the Siege of Corinth, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge.

Daniel wrote this letter from the encampment near Battle Creek on the Tennessee river where the Federals had constructed Fort McCook. This was located in a narrow valley with the Cumberland range in the rear and the enemy’s pickets in full view across the river. It was some five miles above Bridgeport. Five weeks after this letter was penned, the fort was abandoned when it shelled unmercifully by Rebel artillery from the other side of the river.

Transcription

Camp near Battle Creek, Tennessee
July 20th 1862

My dear friend,

They tell me that it is Sunday today but I don’t know whether it is or not. I know that the sun shines pretty hot and it is on the 20th of the month and that is all that I know about it. I begin to feel pretty well. It used me pretty hard at first but I am hearty and well at present. We don’t have much to do in camp since we came to this place and we have a nice and I think a healthy camp.

There is not much chance for a fight here as yet but perhaps things will change soon as to give us a chance to try the secesh again. There is lots of them on the other side of the river. I was down to the river yesterday bathing and washing some clothes and the secesh came down to the river on the other side and hollered to us and asked us to come over. We told him that it would not pay. We asked him what regiment he belonged to and he said 96th Georgy. I told him that Georgy did not have that many fighting men and he said that it had a damn sight more though. He said that we would see them over hear before long and we told him that we have seen them run too and he said that he expected we had but it was after us that they run. They are very saucy. The river is not very wide. I think that I could hit a man almost every shot but there is not any shooting done.

I was up on the mountain today after huckleberries and I found some. One of the boys was with me and we got all that we could eat and brought about four quart home with us and sold three quarts of them for 75 cents—pretty well for Sunday labor. We earned all that we got for we had to go about three miles for them and about half of the way was up a steep hill. I think that the mountain is about a half mile perpendicular above the river but a man has to go about a mile and a half to get to the top of it and after one gets to the top of it, he can look all around and I tell you, that is a splendid view. It’s almost sublime. I could see the Rebel’s camp on the other side of the river. I would have written you before this time but I have written to Father and I thought that you would hear from me in their letters that I wrote to them.

Major [William B.] Bingham,’s wife is here. She came last week. I don’t know how long she will stay. No more. Respectfully yours, — Daniel Rowe