"Letter from the Army." from the August 17, 1865 Door County Advocate
Letter from the Army.
CAMP NEAR MONTGOMERY ALA.,
JULY 19th, 1865
FRIEND FULLER: Since I left you it has been my lot to see a great deal of the Southern Confederacy, and I have become satisfied that I don't want to live here; they tell me that this is the flower of the Southern States but if it is; God pity the rest, for there are thousands of poor women here who will starve this winter if not helped by the Government. We are in a very healthy part of the country and would like to stay until we are discharged, but we expect to go to Mobile for Provost duty; if we go there we shall perhaps stay our time out, but I have made up my mind to take love easy, and perhaps marry some rich southern lady, get her gold come home and have a good time generally.
I will now give you a little history of my travels since I left you. After our arrival at Camp Randall we were assigned to Barracks 15 where we stayed until Tuesday April 4th when we were again put on board of second class cars without a cushion and started for the extreme front, being assigned to the 11th Reg't Wis., Vet., Vol., Infantry, at Mobile Ala. We got to Chicago same evening and marched to the Soldiers Home where we expected to get supper but, alas, we were disappointed for we got none and was promised a good breakfast, but through the gross negligence of the upstart of a captain in charge of us, we had to leave without either supper or breakfast.
We embarked on the Illinois Central Road for Cairo where we arrived after about twenty-four hours of hard riding, but we had better cars than in Wisconsin. We stayed at Cairo about eight hours when we went on board the steamer Mollie Able for Memphis, where we arrived next day at 2 o'clock, were disembarked and marched about two miles to the fort, where they would not receive us; consequently we were marched back about three miles to the Soldiers Home, we stayed here 2 days when we were again ordered to fall in and marched on board of the steamer Joseph Puree for Vicksburg where we arrived in good time after nearly sinking; we marched up to the Court House and was told to make ourselves as comfortable as possible on the ground until morning, but there was not much sleep. In the morning we had a chance to see some specimens of General GRANT'S shooting at the Court House and flag staff; we lay around until about 12 o'clock P. M. when we marched to the Soldiers Home where we got a good warm meal, the first since we left Green Bay, saw Mrs. HARVEY there and told her how we were used at Chicago; she said "boys if you ever come back that way stop at the Soldiers Home and I will see that you get double rations;" after dinner we again embarked for Now Orleans, we stopped at Natchez, Baton Rouge and at some plantations, got to New Orleans in good time were marched all over the city until about nine o'clock P. M., and finally found quarters in a cotton press and went to bed supperless. Next afternoon at 5 o'clock we marched to the Lake Ponchartrain R.R. depot and took the cars to Lake Port five miles where we embarked on the steamer Clyde for Fort Gaines.
Tuesday we went on board the steamer Planter for Mobile where we arrived next day, where we was put into what was called by courtesey a camp of distribution; here we found here we found that our regiment had gone to Montgomery. We stopped at Mobile four weeks waiting for transportation.— DICK TAYLOR had not surrendered and the Johnnies had control of the river. Finally we were again embarked on a steamer and after a tedious run of three days arrived at Montgomery, the former capitol of the defunct confederacy; the city is situated on the right bank of the river, on a high bluff about 150 feet above the level of the river.
General WILSON made sad work here, he burned all the manufacturing portion of the town and all the railroad buildings, the iron work of cars and engines can still be seen lying about in every portion of the town.
They are begining to rebuild some parts of the town. We found the Reg't about 12 o'clock at night, three miles from the city on a fine plantation formerly the property of a rebel colonel who took LINCOLN'S pills and died on the field. We have an abundance of good spring writer but are furnished rather poor rations."
JESSIE KIMBER.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
[ Ponchartrain, courtesey, and begining were common spellings at the time.]
Articles relating to the Civil War
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