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Chattanooga: Tenn. Oct 12, 1864. My dear friends, I am sorry to tell you that I write propped up in bed, altogether sore, and bruised, and unfit for duty. It came about in this way. On the 7th inst. a force of about 1500, our Regt. included, were ordered to make a reconnoisance by Railroad to Resaca. The swollen rivers had washed away a Bridge at Ringgold, so we proceeded by the Cleveland route. About 8 or 9 miles from Dalton, on a down grade, and running at a high rate of speed, the two rearmost cars, in the foreward one of which I was, went off the track, dragging along for a hundred yards or thereabouts, and finally going down the embankment. Two persons were killed, several dreadfully mangled, and fifteen or twenty quite severely hurt. I am one of these latter. I did not jump, but remained in the car, and so quite probably escaped death or mutilation. But I got knocked and thrown about a good deal, sustaining internal injuries and injury in the spinal column. I was taken to a hospital in Dalton, and brought back when the command returned the next day. I can't at present get