Union soldier’s letter written by “Joseph Gifford” who enlisted 8/24/1861 into F Co., Ma 19th Infantry and was wounded at Antietam, 9/17/1862 and died from those wounds 9/25. The four page letter is datelined Camp Benton Montgomery County, Dec. the 22, 1861, Maryland, D.C. and reads in part, “We started about 10 o’clock at night and marched about 2 ½ miles then laid in ambush until this morning. ... We had no fighting last night but we got high enough to see the rebel’s pickets and talk with them across the river. The pickets wanted some whiskey brought over to them. ... One at the union pickets told me that the pickets of both sides come and go over the river and talk and play cards with each other and he told me that rebels are very badly clothed and fed. ...”