Confederate Soldier's Letter on a Skirmish Near Brandy Station (August 1, 1863) Civil War-dated ALS in pencil from Confederate soldier Richard Marshall of the 6th Virginia Cavalry, known as ‘the Bloody Sixth,’ one page, both sides, August 9, 1863. Addressed from “Camp Near Culpepper, Va.,” a handwritten letter to his family, in part: “We had a fight near Brandy about a week ago [August 1, 1863]...We are now so close to the enemy that we can hear their drums and bugles as distinctly as we can our own. Our brigade is in the advance and our pickets are about one hundred and fifty yards from the Yanks...before this reaches you I expect we will be driven back to the Rapidan, but as Uncle Tom [Colonel Thomas Marshall] says, we will fight and cry a little before they do. The Yanks are behaving most outrageously...They have taken away everything...The Cavalry has had very hard service ever since I joined it...we were in Maryland about thirteen days and had nine fights...rather too much of a good thing...Meade's Headquarters are in Warrenton and he has a very heavy force of infantry, cavalry and artillery...They drove in our pickets in the direction of Beverly's Ford yesterday.” In very good condition, with edgewear, stains, and an area of paper loss affecting several lines of writing.