John writes that his health is as good as ever. They have crossed the Ohio river to Kentucky six miles from Cincinnatti and have set their tents on the top of a high hill from where they can see 'steam bots [boats?]'. He believes that there are about a hundred thouasnd soldiers in the camp and a the enemy are retreating.

He was in a heavy battle on his first night in Cincinnatti, which was the seventeenth of September, and he describes how the arms were thick on the ground.