Three miles below Providence on Miss River
Louisiana, March 31st, 1863Sarah Ann,
It has been a long time since I wrote you a letter. We left our old camp on the 16th, just went up the river about fifty miles. The 55th Ill was up there and they thought they was going to be attacked. We (our Reg) and the 14th Wis went to help them out. When we got there, we found all quiet. We got about four thousand bales of cotton marked USA. It was to haul from 3 to 7 miles. It was hid in canebrakes by Jones Swamp. While there, Cos C. B. and E. (65 men) went out ten miles to find three or four hundred bales of cotton on Douglas Plantation. We stayed four days, but the roads were so bad it was not hauled. So we left it. We had rather good times out there. It was on a bayou and we had plenty of skiffs to drill in, and go in swimming. Two or three hundred negroes came in the river. They loaded all the cotton on the boats and showed us the cotton, mules, horses, etc., in the county. They thought we would bring them with us when we left, but poor things, they were sadly disappointed. We left them on the bank of the river - men, women, and children, nearly all crying.
©2006 C.S. Parkinson