In rear of Spanish Fort, Mobile Bay, Alabama

April 2^d 1865             

 

Dear Father

                                    To day is Sunday by the Almanack, but I have been riding all day and have seen no signs of it. I was down at the landing this morning (5 miles) hundreds of teams going & coming, working parties, busy, Q.M. receiving & issuing, everybody cursing everybody.

 

I drew a lot of forage. I came back to order teams down to haul it. As I went around to the different Batteries I found some of the men asleep, lying behind a sand bank. Some were building protection to sleep behind. Some washing their persons & clothes. Some cooking & eating. Some mending their clothes (as a description of this country will show you that clothes is in danger.) there is no Sutlers here or some would be playing cards. bullets were flying over their heads and among them. "L" the Co I belong to had 2 guns in an exposed position. the rebs opened on Co "L" and burst & dropped 8 inch shells close around & over them. they were laughing about the effect it had on different men. there are a great many laughable things happen in such cases. Our forces surrounded this fort and the gunboats & monitors cannot get near enough to effect it much so they sent forces We have been here about 4 days have 16=30pd Parrots, 8 mortars in position some of them have been working on the rebs 2 or 3 days

 

the rebs have a very good position and it will take us some days to shell them out our Infantry is close up to their works 

 

Description of Country and Position

 

We are nearly across the bay east of Mobile. the country is very hilly, similar to Calicoon Hills. Most of the hills are about 30 to 40 feet high and ¼ of a mile apart. the gullies run in all directions. the soil is sandy with clay in places there is no soil. Small yellow or pitch pines cover hills & hollows the pines, like most pines are slim. We can ride a horse most any place & many places drive a wagon except along the coast where there are hard wood & pines, briers brush gullies, moss. it is a rough place to ride through. I ride a fiery horse and when the shells are bursting around he does not like to walk slow, and as the woods are not very wide it is rather interesting to ride as it takes two hands to hold the horse and it takes one hand to protect your face from brush. the consequence is clothes is torn face & hands scratched up. there is considerable old down timber in places and an old pine tree top is not a thing to ride into after night. a little stunted grass & pine leaves cover the ground. It is a pretty location and the nicest place to make approaches to a fort I ever saw. My health is very good. Sometimes we have something to eat sometimes scarce. No fresh beef

 

Parna's letter of Feb 17^th with yours of March 9^th arrived Thursday—also one from Joliet (Father) one from A. E. Wood—one from Frank Bates, of March 6^th. they are all well. Tell Parna I am much obliged for her letter & answering my questions

 

I am glad you have your health again. Please accept my thanks for seeing my taxes paid. I sometimes wonder when I shall see that that patch of (free soil) and wonder whether tis worth what I paid for it & who is living on it or who will

 

            You say you expected to hear of our being up with Sherman or Grant We have a big Army here. Gen Cantey commands, Gen Steele is up at Blakely a few miles north of here. he went from Pensacola up back of here. we hear him fighting last night & this morning / We have sent him reinforcements as his is mostly cavalry. the rebs are defending Mobile at these outside points—the rebs are doing well. We have 8 30 pdrs on M[?] Bay on our right of the fort to keep transports from going to the fort. the fort shelled them well. the Rebs have two or 3 gunboats & a ram in the channel they opened on our batteries but we drove two transports & the gunboats out of our reach so night before last the rebs planted a light battery on our right so our 8 guns were between 3 fires. the rebs land batteries on two sides and an ironclad gun boat in front. I had business up at the batteries yesterday morning just as I got there the rebs opened with their light batteries on our right, our magazines fronted that way as they were turned from the fort, and I never see men lay as close to a sand bank as they did. the shells were tearing through the brush & sand around the guns the men had to throw up a bank in part of their magazines. I attended to my business and left. ("I was afraid my horse would get hurt") As I was going to my horse I heard the gun. I jumped for a tree but just before I got to the tree the shell struck the brush & ground about 15 feet ahead of me. they make an awful racket going through brush. It makes a person lie down & dodge very sudden sometimes but it is worth soldiering 2 or 3 years to see a siege like this No citizens are down here the rebs have planted torpedoes in the bay. two monitors have blown up & one or two gun boats. they (the Navy) have taken out near a 100. there are torpedoes among these hills quite a no. of horses have been killed some men hurt.

 

there has been quite a number of our men killed by their shells & sharp shooters men get careless. one man of our Regt Co "C" was shot by a rifle. it struck a limb and glanced down and shot him through the head. Every Regt & Battery has holes dug, logs & poles piled up to keep bullets & shell off, logs laid up & dirt piled behind /

 

As this siege may last some time I will give you a plot of it for reference

 

You are not much of a soldier and probably take but little interest in engineering, nor anything pertaining to a siege except the result

 

[diagram with entries from top to bottom: Marsh, fort, Blakely River, fort Dred, Reb Battery, fort Auger, sand bar, this point covered with timber, Mobile Bay, 7 miles to Mobile, old Spanish fort facing the bay, new addition, mortars, Co K, 26^th NY battery, Co H, mortars, Co L, our road to landing]

 

Bed time I quit to eat supper then the rebs commenced shelling they threw shells close to us 1½ miles from their fort they throw shells from a 100 pdr 7 inch give 4½ miles. I must quit good night—write soon while I remain as ever

                                                                                               

Your Son

R. H. C.

                                               

rub this out

I think I told you I saw

Crawford Barkley on Dauphin

Island

SOURCES