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2nd New Jersey Is Nearly Surrounded At Battle Of C

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A good war-date Union soldier's letter, written by Pvt. Sumner D. Aspinwall, Co. G, 2nd New Jersey Vols., 4p. octavo, ink, Camp at White Oak Church, Virginia, May 13, 1863, and reads in part: "...I can assure you the night after the battle of Sunday I thought of you at home and in the still hours of that night when my dead and wounded comrades lay around me O my mind wandered back to my home and I thought there might be at that moment prayers ascending to Heaven for me. Many are the homes that will be made desolate on that Sunday. My comrades were shot down by my side and one young man in front of me was shot dead...One young man was killed who use to board with me in Newark and enlisted with me. I have been writing to his friends in Brooklyn. His brother was killed in the Brooklyn 14th and I have been writing to his sister, it is her only brother, all have been killed in this war. I tell you Lucy when we are in the battle it is nothing to what the suspense is when we are in line waiting to go in, then our thoughts turn to our homes and the thoughts of the future. I thank God that I have been preserved thus far and I do not know how soon we will enter another battle. Six days my regiment was to the front and the last to leave the field forming the rear guard. After the reverse on the right the enemy threw all their forces upon this Corps (Sedgewicks) we only had a small place to retreat, the enemy nearly surrounding us. This Corps lost more than any other in the army. The loss is four thousand seven hundred and sixty nine. This Brigade lost six hundred and most of them were killed and wounded. The enemy suffered more heavy than we did. I saw them mowed down fearfully by the artillery. My regiment has now been in eleven battles. The battles of West Point, Gaines Hill[Mill] Charles City, Cross Roads, Malvern Hills, Bull Run, Antietam, Crampton's Pass, Fredericksburg 1st, Fredericksburg 2nd, Six days, Solermy Farm and Sunday near Wilderness Church. I do not think there is many regiments that can show many more than this. The Gov. of N.J. presented the four old regiments of this Brigade with a banner for gallantry at Cramptons Pass, just before the last Battle of Fredericksburg. There is a report that Stonewall Jackson is dead...We have a noble doctor in our regiment, he was to the front all the time doing all he could for the wounded, instead of being so far to the rear that the wounded would die before they would be carried there like some. We have also a noble man for Chaplin he was to the front all the time doing all in his power for the wounded and the dying..." VG.

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