Corinth, Miss. June 26. 1862

 

            Dear Friend

 

                                    Official cares, responsible duties and a thousand daily calls upon my time must plead my excuse for not writing before to thank you for your welcome letter and its kindly expression of feeling and interest in my behalf. I wish much that I could thank you in person, but from present appearances we are destined to remain here for some time, though it is possible that I may come up to St Louis for a few days in the course of the summer. 

 

            The newspapers have given you the details of our progress from Pittsburg Landing to this place. To us it was a most anxious period, not only for our professional reputation but for the nation's existence. A failure here would have given a lock-jaw to the Union, hence we moved in this strong-hold with great circumspection leaving nothing to chance, and, had the little mercurial Frenchman staid, we might have had a duel of arms worthy of another Byron to sing the glories of a new "Siege of Corinth". Though a less brilliant achievement awaited us, the result will be of tenfold value for it has thoroughly demoralized / the southern army, almost disintegrated it, and proved to thousands of deluded followers the hollow selfishness of their military leaders and demagogue chiefs. The hydra of secession is already nearly dead in the Valley of the Mississippi. The "Specials" of the press would have been pleased to record a bloody victory with its hecatombs of victims, and have Halleck, like sour Tamerlane, quit his pyramid of skulls to commemorate his deeds; but every philanthropist will rejoice that a moral conquest, almost without cost, has been achieved of far greater import in the annals of the nation. A great battle with its thousands / of killed and wounded would have added nothing to our success except more sectional bitterness in this already highly exacerbated patriacidal strife.

 

            My health and strength is entirely restored. Camp life, unlimited supply of fresh air, and daily horseback exercise in abundance have worked miracles for me. The climate here, [?] far south, is delicious. Though the days are sometimes a little warm, the nights are cool and refreshing, I expect much more so than in St. Louis.

 

Yours very truly

Geo. W. Cullum

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