Dear Father, Mother and Family:

I address you all and hope this may find you all as it leaves me, in good health. I suppose you have received the letter I wrote to Sis which I finished last Friday morning just before we reached Glade Springs and which I brought to the Wytheville Depot and gave to Eva. I kept it in my hand from Mt. Airy to Wytheville thinking perhaps Sis or Sallie might accidently be over at the railroad and I would throw it off but I saw nothing of them. I will give you a sketch of our trip this far if I have time before I leave here again and I think I will for it is raining very hard this morning. We rolled out of Glade Springs Depot about 9 o clock Friday morning having cooked 3 days rations, but nothing new or interesting occurred till we got to Wytheville. Here we saw many of our old friends and relatives. Eva, Sallie and Lizzie were at the depot, but goodbye must be said, as it were in the same breath with howdy do and we were off again. At Dublin we found Col. Clark s Battalion which came on with us. And by the way you can tell Robert Fry's wife if you should see her that I saw him and he is well and hearty. We got to Central Depot about sundown where I saw Col Whorton kiss his fair lady and bid her farewell. Shortly after we left Central I went to sleep and knew nothing more till day light where I awoke at Forrest Depot 10 miles from Lynchburg. After waiting for the trains (mail and freight) to come up from Lynchburg we came on to that place. I never was much more surprised than I was when I got to Lynchburg. I had formed an opinion of what sort of a place it was. I thought it was a beautiful place, nice County and a desirable place anyway. But the truth of the matter is, it is one of the roughest places I have ever seen(home not excepted.) The city is on a hill which is equally as high and rough as the one there at home. And nothing can be seen from where I was but rugged river bluffs covered with small shrubs, mostly pine. Regardless of its roughness there are a great many fine buildings and extensive manufacturing establishments there. Here we exchanged cars and moved our baggage from the VA and Tenn cars to the Orange and Alexandria cars. We then traveled a Northeast course till we got to Charlottesville, a distance of 60 miles. We got to see the canal boats running on the James river at this place. We left Lynchburg about 11 o clock Saturday morning and came through the 2 counties of Nelson and Amherst or rather Amherst and Nelson. They are the poorest counties I ever saw, the railroad is nothing but a cut and a fill all the way through these two counties. The timber is small and mostly pine thicket. But of all the dew berries I ever saw, the fields were black with them and when the train would stop to get water or wood we boys bounced off and eat berries and when the bell would ring to start, such scrambling to get on you never saw. Albemarle is a good county and crops looked well. We arrived at Charlottesville about 10 o clock Sunday morning, it is the handsomest place I have seen yet. The first thing that comes into view as you near the City is the dome of the University of VA. I was on top of the cars when I got there and I thought it the most sublime scenery I have ever witnessed. Here we changed cars again from the Orange and Alexandria Railroad to the Covington and Ohio railroad. The country is very fine when you first leave Charlottesville coming this way, but its not long till you come in sight of the Blue Ridge. A vast tunnel through this nearly a mile long. It is a magnificent structure and the largest in Va. As soon as you get out of the mountains you come to a beautiful little village called Waynesboro. It is about as large as Marion, VA.  The next station was Fishersville, but we did not stop here. We are on our way now to Winchester, 92 miles distance from here and we will take it afoot. From there we think we will go to Gen. Lee's Army in Md. Suffer no uneasiness about me. Will try to be prepared for any emergencies. I have no more news of importance. You can hear as much there as here. We are all well and in a fine country now, and in good spirits. We are expecting soon to be in a fight with the Yankees. Write to me as soon as you get this and direct as follows:  

Thomas W. Fisher
C/O Capt. Yance,Co.C
51st Regt., Staunton, Va.                                 
 
 
 

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