Camp of 2nd Regiment Minn. Vol. near Triune, June 11, 1863

Yesterday I received your letter of June 2nd. I also have received your letter of May 25th which I have not answered, but Peder has written since.

On June 7th we went to Nashville with sixty wagons and came back June 9th. The road is full of teams all the time between Triune and Nashville.

There has not been any real battle here yet. The Rebels are constantly on the move in our front and often are up to our picket line, thinking that by so doing they will hold the Rosencrans army here, and not give us a chance to strengthen Grant by Viksborg.

I think that the Rebels find themselves too weak for a battle except against small parties here.

Our regiment is well and our company is in good humor.

We still have thirteen full-blooded Norwegians in company E and they all are in good shape, but I can’t refuse to say that each and every one would be willing to lose all they have coming from the government if they could get their freedom. All are tired of the monotony in camp life, and the rules and the treatment which we get and have to be satisfied with, but we must live in the hope that we will again see freedom, if we live long enough, so we have to take the days as they come.

We now have an unusually fine brass band and good music in our regiment. We also have many fiddle-players and fiddles.

We have made from boards a floor twenty-foot square, in the middle of our camp where a dance is held every night, here is no sorrow.

This forenoon the Rebels planted their battery one mile from Triune. Our cannons as well as the cannons of the Rebels were used an hour, two shells hit the town but no damage was done. The battle lasted all day but mostly by the cavalry. We lost about fifty horses that were loose on the grass by the town.

It has now been said that the Rebels have fallen back three miles and everything is quiet this evening.

I have read that we lost five men, and we took forty prisoners. It is hard to find out the exact number in a hurry.

Our brigade was not out of the camp today, but stood ready.

If the battle starts tomorrow before the mail goes out, then I will mention it in this letter.