Near Nashville Tenn Dec 6th, 1862

Dear Friend Ed,
	   	Yours of the 29th Ult.
	came to hand last evening,
      and was heartily welcomes, as it
always pleases me to learn of your
welfare.
	Since I wrote to you last
we have had quite a skirmish. On
the morning of the 27th last month, our
Brigade was ordered out on a
reconnaissance, and had proceeded out
one mile beyond our pickets, when
our [a]dvance guard came to their
outposts, when the butternuts fired and
fell back to their reserve. We followed
closely, marching in line, firing a
volley whenever an opportunity presented
itself. Thus we drove them three
miles, to Lavergne, where they had

a Brigade stationed, and seemed
determined to dispute our further advance.
Here the Artillery practice became
quite lively and lasted about two
hours and Regiment, the 30th Ind, and
77th Penn steadily advanced on
the left of the pike while the other
Regts supported our Battery. Our
company, with one from each
of the other Regiments were thrown
forward as skirmishers, and you
can guess we had fun with the
ragged devils. We would exchange
shots with them until they would
begin to skulk off, then the boys
would raise a shout, and take after
them. Thus we progressed until we
reached a cedar wood. Just to the left
of the town, being suspicious of some
trap here we advanced very
cautiously until about half way through
when we could see their reserve coming
up, pretty soon they began to advance

on double quick, and yelling like
demons, our skirmishers Just 
stepped behind trees and let them
come within range, when our boys
opened fire on them, causing them
to halt as suddenly as if met
by an Earthquake.  You can imagine
how warm the work was at this
point, but our three Companies
of skirmishers held their ground without
the aid of our reserve, they not getting
a change to fire a gun. In a short
time they rebs began to fall back again
seeing which our boys thought their 
time had come and immediately 
raised a shout that fairly made the
woods ring and started in persuit,
the way secesh blankets, and coats
flew, was'nt slow. I tell you Ed they 
are good runners. we persued them two
miles beyond town, and then gave up
the chase. Only two of our Co. were wounded,
I escaped without a scratch. I wished
you were along to enjoy the fun.
			    Your as ever    Rene