Birds Point, Mo.
Camp Lyons, Aug 29th, 1861My Dear Friends,
M.[Mathew] & P.[Polly] Cunningham
I have been so busy since I came here and have written so many letters to my family that I feel that I have neglected you too long. We are camped in old Birds Apple Orchard. It is a very nice shady and dry place. The poor boys have cooked and eaten the apples all up. We have plenty of rations of bread, cornmeal, bacon, beef, from three to five times a week, coffee, sugar, rice, and beans and plenty of soap and candles. Our mess is two Crabtree. John Boggs, Ash Andrews, J. Riley Kell, Silas Baltzell, John [Silas] McWilliams, John [Parkinson] and Bill and a young negro from Mo. He cooks for us, and we pay him 25 cents per week a piece and stand his guard. We have an old cook stove (our mess), and a good skillet to bake biscuits and corn dodgers in. Our cook is very good. So we live very well or better than expected to. We went to Charleston Monday, rode on the cars to within two and a half miles of there, walked the balance of the way. We found nothing but citizens there and a few Secesh [secessionists]. They ran when they saw us. Our men halted them, but they did not stop and ourEnlistment details:
Andrews, Ashbel
Baltzell, Silas
Boggs, John
Kell, John [Riley]
McWilliams, John [Silas]
Parkinson, John
©2006 C.S. Parkinson
