Transcription

                        Washington Jan 4th 1862

Dear Brother

                          It is with much pleasure that

I take this oporutnity to inform you of my where abouts

The day after new years I and one of my conrads got a

pass and went over to the fortifications on our way there

w visited the camp of the fourth Pensylvania regt and

a camp of artillery men we explored the country for

two or three miles around to our satisfaction and then

we turned our course toward the Potomac to visit the

fourts the old dogs looked savage with their mouths over

the walls on the outside of the wall was a ditch ten feet wide

and eight feet deep and on the outside of that was a tier of

tree tops with the small limbs trimed off and the large

ones sharpened  it would bother a man to get through it

there was a trench from one fort to an other large

enough for two men to walk abreast and be out of

sight  there was a line of fortifications as far as the

eye could reach the guns were about eight feet long

they were forty two pounders  I walked around upon

the wall there was timber slashed for a mile around

so as not to afford shelter to the rebbles the quarters

in the fouts are bomb proof [?] I should like to see

them fire a few rounds from those big guns from

there we went to a [Rhodiland?] camp that was in

a cedar grove and from there we steered for our camp