Sixth Regiment N. C. State Troops. – For the gratification of those who have friends in Capt. Freeland’s Company, we are permitted to publish and extract of his letter to his wife.
Manassas Junction, July 23d, 1861.
My Dear Julia: – I am yet alive and well, and so only through the great mercies of God. Sixteen of my brave boys fell around me, dead and wounded, while storming one of the enemy’s batteries. Our brave Col. Fisher fell near me. The battle raged dreadfully for twelve hours. They drove us once in some disorder, but we drove them at last with great slaughter. I hope never to witness such a scene again. Be of good cheer, dear Julia, for I hope the last great battle is fought and won.
I send you a list of the dead and wounded of my Company:
Killed – J. A. Hutchins, Robert Falkner
Wounded. – J. E. Davis, mortally; E. W. Pickett, James Redmun, A. Glen, A. P. Copley, James Copley, William Chambley, W. P. Haley, S. B. Freeman, H. Vickers, O. W. Willett, H. Pickett, Silas Hutchin, Burton Rhodes.
I have just visited my wounded, and could but weep over them. Our dead are all buried.
Hillsboro Recorder.
(Fayetteville, NC) Semi-Weekly Observer, 8/5/1861
William Johnson Freeland at Ancestry
Harry Smeltzer
Bull Runnings 
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