March 7^th 1863

Camp Mountain Grove Wright Co Mo

           

Dear Wife

                                    Again I devote a few moments of my hours of leisure time to amuse you & at the same time it gives me employment as I am not verry fond of playing checkers so I write letter after letter to you although the last few I have wrote seem more like talking to one asleep as I hardly get a grunt in respons from all I write Do not think I blame you for I do not as I think you tax yourself as much as is good or pleasant for you yet you know I like to get a letter about evry mail from some one I have written 22 letters since I last left home & have got but 10 I got 3 yesterday but they had the initials SB & IB on them so they were sealed to me & are still only that

 

It still rains & is muddy It must be verry disagreeable to all Since writing you our sick man Colvill has died & yesterday Arthur Buzick has taken verry sick with the same disease (Lung Fever) & I think he will most likely die as he gives up just like a sheep & has no energy to combat diseas all the others are in fair health except Derryman, Chaplin & Sharbine & the 2 last I think is better There is not a great amount of sickness in the Reg considering how we live & sleep I suppose you have sent letters by S Minier & they have not got here yet though we look for them evry day We are in the enemys country now or one they want there are bush whackers lurking in the country. Yesterday as one of the 20^th Wiscons forage train was out they were fired on & one report says 4 men killed & another that none was killed but that they run & were taken prisoners 3 or 4 certain it is that some of them come in striped of coats & pants they use our uniforms to deceive us & do so successfully often but woe be to them if they are caught for death is their penalty 

 

We are (IE 94) encamped on an old cornfield about a ¼ of a mile south of the seminary & the other portions of the division is camped all around & in town But it is the 94 you are interested in It has been raining for over 24 hours so you can guess how a cornfield would be though here it is different from Old McLean after going plow deep it comes to a stiff clay & gravel & holds water quite well but does not cut so deep as there yet mule teams of 6 stuck fast with verry little load so you see the prospect is fair to find us here some days from now unless something urgent starts us though it is not probable that we can forage more than a week or so here & in that time we can verry near ruin the country so no army of any size can stay or even pass through the country for the next year to come & I do not see that a year will help it much as there are but few here to make crops for the women that is left in fact I do not think they can exist here until they can grow a crop The last years crop that we are now feeding on was made in the main part before the law went into effect to enroll all the able bodied men in the state as militia so all that would not fight for the Union had to leave the state & go south & all the others are in the field & scattered through the country And they are of that nature they will not act soldier & farmer at the same time So as the Rebels cannot be here to make crops the militia cannot & there will be none made only what is done by the women & but few of them have life enough to catch a flee if 20 was on them They are as universally slothful & dirty as any people I ever saw not one in twenty has enough ambition to keep clean or not to drawl out their words; a great proportion of them chew or smoke tobacco, & there are from two to five at evry house as they have spliced up their families both Rebels & Federals They will trade any thing they have in the house for coffee and at almost any price say a pound of coffee for a bushel meal / not one in ten seem to know anything about money so many prefer Confederate scrip to our money & they can always be accommodated & often they refuse our small bills saying they have been told they were not good; thus you see the poor things are duped so they do not know what to do Some buy & many take all they want & others take what they want & pay what they please If this war continues one year longer there will be the most desitute people that ever lived in a fertile country & I should not be surprised if thousands of those destitute creatures find their way to Illinois on foot next summer & all other ways conceivable but most of them will stop in the south part of the state

Since I wrote you on the 1^st page of the forage train being fired on the party of Cavalry that was sent after them has returned & they say they will never fire on another train so we have to infer that they found them & gave them their just deserts they also say that they found some barracks which they destroyed with a no of blankets saddles &c all this I do not know but it may be so

 

The settlers say the building called the Seminary was built by a stray Yankey schoolteacher that borrowed the money & mortgaged the house for the debt he used it 2 years & had to leave the settlers many of them availed themselvs of the chance to send their children to him although at first they did not like him but after going a while they could not keep them at home But now the building is used for an entire different purpose Then to store the mind with the elements of peace & happiness of human beings, now to store the elements of war & destruction of our fellow man (guns & ammunition) I think there is but one house is inhabited in the town proper In February a year ago a lot of Rebels came here & stoped at a house used as a hotell when they got to dancing & carrousing a lot of the 10 Ill Cavalry charged on them killing 9 or 10 & wounded as many more they are burried near by we now use it for a Hospital There was a good Carding Factory or mill all in good running order run by a tread wheel but the boys went at it the second night we were here & totally demolished / building so far as the outside was concerned & a goodly part of the old tread wheel which was rather substantial to be easily torn to pieces but the cards & cylinders & machinery in general was totally destroyed many of the pieces of the leather that had wyer in them (the cards) found their way to our tents & on the frame of our tent stools & the drum pieces for kindlings. Thus you see that after we leave the country it has all to be made over before it can be inhabited again we burn thousands of rails daily I might say at least all we want

 

There is some talk that we will move again on Monday 20 miles southeast of here so you can trace us on the map on the wall There is such a report in camp that there has been a bill passed in Congress allowing 5 privates from a company to go home on a furlough for 30 days if sick or unable for duty yet it lacks confirmation as many other things do that is rumored in camp All seem lively & cheerful as I hear singing on all sides almost I did not think at the time I commenced that I would spin so long a yarn as I have If any one is interested in my letters let them read what you want them to & any one that wants to write for information that I can I will most cheerfully answer them for I like to get letters from any one Rowell does not deserve to hear from me as I have never had a scratch from him or Nancy ask sisters Mary & Nancy if they ever think of writing me to chase away a few lonesome hours Ben has never wrote a word & surely I never will unless they do I suppose they think they can not interest me as I must know all about things there & forget that it has been well nigh 3 months since I left Has Ben ever gave any security for what he owes or has A. made any effort to put it in a way to have it settled in some safe way I would not have finished this tonight but a train leaves for Rolla to morrow & takes the mail It is 80 miles from here so this will be 7 days getting to you So hopeing to hear from you soon I must close with my respects to all my friends & my love to my ever devoted Sarah                                     

O Barnard

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