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Head Quarters, Company A, 129th Ills. Vols.
Camp near Frankfort, Ky., Octr. 9th 1862

My dear Wife

We arrived here this morning about sunrise after a day & night’s march, very tired, yet enjoying good health.¹ The mail arrived last night from Louisville but brought nothing for me. It is very easy for letters to miscarry.

I earnestly hope that you are all well. Will only stop here long enough to cook rations, & we will start in a few minutes on a two-days march. I think our destination will be Lexington but am not sure. There was a short skirmish here last night before we arrived, but the rebels left suddenly, a few wounded on each side.²

I shall expect to hear from you by next mail; I believe I have not missed a day writing to you since we arrived in Louisville.

May God bless you all, Farewell

Your affect. Husband
J. F. Culver

1. The 129th Illinois marched from Shelbyville on the 8th. General Dumont, having learned that Sill’s division had evacuated Frankfort, pushed his soldiers hard. Word passed up and down the column that the Confederates had reoccupied the city. Dumont called on his people to make a night march. One of the men recalled, “No march has ever been so tiring to me as this one, being hardly able to remain in the column. Many of the men left the column and laid down by the road to sleep and rest.” Grunert, History of the 129th Illinois, pp. 6-7. [↩]
2. Dumont’s vanguard, as it approached Frankfort, skirmished with troopers of Col. John Hunt Morgan’s Kentucky cavalry, who retired down the Versailles road. O.R., Ser. I, Vol. XVI, pt. II, pp. 601, 925-926. [↩]