The Civil War Letters of J. W. Rabb

Near Gadson, Ala., Oct 27th 1864

Col. John H. Moore

Dear friend,
I reseived a letter frome you a few dayes a go dated 26/th/64. I was truly glad to here from you, as it was the first letter that I had got from you in some time, although I had riten several times to you. (My pen is so bad I have to lay it aside.) But there is no telling how long a letter may be on the road. I reseived fourteen letters at the time I got your, & five of them was dated in /63. Our Cav. has returned from off ove a pretty extensive raid up in East & Middle Tenn whare we doen the Yanks a good deal of damage by tearing up the Rail road, & our army left the rail road below Atlanta several weeks a go, & by this time they are well across the Tenn. River. They crossed the river at Guntersville, & they are making for middle Tenn. When we were coming off the rade we met our army near Rome, Geo. Our Devision was put in the rear of it to watch the Yankeys, they being very thick in & around Rome. We remain within eight miles of Rome several dayes, & then Col. Harrison concluded he would take the Cav & go down to Rome & feel of the Yankey. We went down within three miles of Rome & drove in the pickets & fourmed a line of battle acrost the road, & the Yankeys just came pouring out of Rome with Infantry & Cav. We stood & fought them for some time till we found they were to maney for us. We then started to draw off which we did in a good deal of confusion. The Yankey Infantry was pressin ous. We were dismounted and had to go back some little distance to our horses. At that time the Yankey Cav charged ours, & such a stompead commensed as I never saw, the Yankeys right at our heals, ever thing going pell mel through the woods. We stoped them at a gap in the mountain after they had run ous some five miles. They got our two pieces of cannon and about fifty prisnors. Our Reg. lost only two killed and several wounded. They did not capture aney of our Reg. We lost our fine silk flag that the ladies of Nashville had sent to ous a short time ago. The flag barier came out with the staff, but when he look for the flag, it was gon. The flag was fasened on very slack, & it pulled off in the brush. You must know that we feal very bad about loosing our flag. Col. Harrison only had about twelve hundred men, & the Yanks had about eight thousand infantry and Cav. It was a very poorly managed affair. Col. Harrison held out there to long. You enqured about Massers Harcote, Croft, Pope, & Bennett. They are all here doing well & in good health. Mr. Bennet is setting near me now. He sends his respects to you. Mr. Harcote was forsed to leave his horse in the stompead. He & his horse both came in. The horse beat him in several hours. I am very sorry to here of the death of Mr. Hunt. We are loosing enough good men in the war without killing them at home. Our Reg. was not so lucky in the raid in to Tenn. as they were last year. We got pleanty of cloths last year, but we did not get much cloths this time. We need cloths now. They say we will draw some, but I think it doubtfull. Give my respects to Mrs. Moore &

Your Res,
John W. Rabb

Rabb, J. W., "We are Stern and Resolved: The Civil War Letters of John Wesley Rabb", ed. by Thomas W. Cutrer, The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 1987, pp. 185-226.

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