To Mary Scott Hill - Knoxville, Tenn., October 26th, 1862.
Dear Sister
Here I sit in a cold Tent withe my hands so cold that I can hardly write for the ground is white withe Snow. Trying to write though it has ben nearley four monthes sinse we have had a word from home. When I wrote last we were at Bardstown Ky sinse that time we have had a verey hard time of it. We have ben covering the retrest of Genrl Bragg from Kentucky. At Bardstown the yanks tryed to cutt us off and come very nigh doing it They got in behind us withe a considrable cavelrey force And come very nigh gitting in there Infantry & Artilerey Capt Jormans Company and ours was in the advance And when we pitched into them you ought to have seen them git we took one Major one Capiton two Lieutenants and thirty six privates. We killed some twenty or thirty. We had one man killed and two or three wounded Brother Bob was left there with the wounded end has not come up yet.
http://www.terrystexasrangers.org/letters/hill_jw/1862_10_26.htm