Shreveport La. June 12/65

 

Dear friend,

                                    Your kind letter reached me yesterday. I am glad to hear once more from you, and learn God has blessed and rendered to you a fair degree of prosperity. We both during the long silence between us have have reason to be thankful for His kindness & love & mercy. How many are bowed down with inexpressible sorrow & how many have become objects of our deepest pity! I feel very grateful for the catalogue and hope some day to make ample return for this and many similar favors. About your intended push for Richmond I of course know very little about the chance there, only as I infer from circumstances at Mobile & N.O. Judging from those places I should I think risk a venture at R— or such a place as any other place known. From what I have seen of late I must say that if I was at home and about to start out in business I should go at N.O. or Mobile as any part of this country. I may after so long an absence from the North forget in a measure the opportunities it affords, but I think not. I have several friends in N.O. and one wants me to / make my next move there. I also have a few friends in Mobile. You see this whole South is prostrated, and the chances for improving upon the sad state of affairs are numerous. Now just take the state of matters here. All produce is very cheap. Eggs & butter about .15 a lb &c. now at N.O. eggs are about .60 & butter .75 &c. The demand at N.O. is always great, and as the communication from the Red river country to the great city is easy there is in my opinion a great chance for making money. Perhaps the state of affairs will soon present a different phase and not so favorable, but I am inclined to think enterprise is for many years going to be in great demand throughout the entire South. The Yankee can now sweep his ideas of labor and trade freely, and is, I think, to cast into shade the labor-hating, pleasure seeking Southerner. The friend in N.O. that wants me to stop there is Beedy whose home is in Berlin a short ways from the bridge. He expects to visit home this summer and you may meet him. If you are in M— on the first of August I think the prospect of our meeting there is very good. It is just about certain that we shall be mustered out in a week or two, & if transportation can be had directly we shall expect to be nearly in Wisconsin by the Fourth. I must visit with friends there a little & I want to visit some in Ill & see also a little more of the / West & then start East. I shall endeavor to stop a few days in New York & a few in Boston. So I think my chances of getting home by the first week in Aug. is very good. We expect every day to begin to muster-out. We shall muster out here & keep up the organization to Madison Wis. where we shall be discharged & paid. I shall be very glad to meet you at my home, for we have so many soldier experiences in the Dep^rt of Gulf in common, a chat over which will be delightful. You will be some surprised I expect to see my letter headed "Shreveport". A few weeks ago we had not the remotest idea of ever seeing this place. Such is military! The next day after the explosion at Mobile we were ordered to embark, & 5 p.m. found us baggage & all on boat. We had a pleasant & safe trip through Grant's pass, by Ship Island, Fort Powell, Lake Pontchartrain to Lakeport, & thence marched to the race course, or what is called "half-way house" between L— & N.O. We stopped there only three days, & then went on boat for Shreveport. I was in N.O. every day & had a chance to do almost all I wanted. The city has changed very much since we left last fall. It has at least twice the stir & business it had then. It looks now gay and grand everywhere, like what it really is, the New York of the South. I never felt more inclination to like the Crescent City. About half of our Division started at this time for S— /

 

Our fleet consisted of four boats and we were just packed on them. I never have seen a time in this war when boats seemed to be so thoroughly jammed. We went very slow in consequence. The Miss was just perfectly full. All of Morganza was under water. It was a long time before we could distinguish the place. Where the levee had been taken down just north of the Fort the water was rushing off into the woods beyond like one mighty river. In consequence of the high rise in the Miss. the water backed up the Red river and the houses up to near Fort De Russy were half submerged. Of course the first port of importance on the Red was Alexandria. Here we found two C^os of 1^st Ind heavy Art. had arrived and about a C^o of Cavalry. A few hundred Rebs were in town awaiting their parole, but most of them had gone to their homes and not only taken their arms &c, but apparently the train, & everything they could carry. They even emptied the heavy ordnance of most of its powder & took it home, & I hear one cannon was taken off by them.

 

            About thirty cannon remained, & some of them I recognized as taken from us at Sabine cross-roads. Some from Nims & the Mercantile Batt'^s. I had a good look over town to see the effects of the fire of last year. I tell you that fire just about ruined A—. All the business portion except a building or two is burned & much back of it, so it looked as though half the village had gone. I took a glance at the spot your Bat. held at the edge of town & near the Commissary, & thought of you. The water was so high it completely overflowed the dam. I was told by a citizen that it was just as we left it, and had become by the washing stronger than ever before & really a fixed fact. The shore opposite A— had changed wonderfully. The woods had been cut down to back about a mile, and a little above the dam were two small & beautiful Forts. Many of our Officers visited these Forts & all said they were the finest & strongest of the size they ever saw. There is in them room under ground to keep a full garrison. One Reg^t stopped here & all the gunboats but a tin-clad. We also found here the Reb gunboat Missouri which in appearance resembled very much our smallest Miss gunboats, the Pittsburg &c. There were also here three transports in good condition. Soon we steamed on. At Grand Ecore a Reg^t in our Brig. stopped. Here were a Reb battery & several hundred troops. The only noticeable change I could see was a Fort about half completed at that brick house near the river, & where you was encamped. The Rebs were evidently striking out for a very good Fort. A few hours longer & we were pushing on & entering the river new to us. We soon found it of all streams the crookedest. The country from G— up is mostly well cultivated and so, for the first time, I had a glimpse of plantations as they were before the war, or nearly so. Nigroes were thick and so unused to Yankees they stood on the banks in silent / amazement. The boys ready for fun yelled & shouted all things at them, or threw to them hard-tack to see the almost naked creatures scrabble for it. Corn was the chief crop & the best of it was topping out. Wheat, rye, cotton were to be seen occasionally. The wheat & rye was dead ripe. I saw but a few good dwellings, although the whole route was generally cultivated. The soil was much like that below Alexandria. At length we reached the famous Shreveport having been on boat eight days.

 

            This place is really a small affair. I have not seen the whole place, and perhaps my first impression is not a good one. It seems to be about the size of Alexandria before the war. It has been so long the abode of troops that it is littered like an old camp. It has about five churches & a school or two I believe. It occupies a bluff similar to Grand Ecore. We found a few Reg^ts of Rebs here, mostly Missouri troops. Thousands of others had gone home & taken about all they could transport. We did get some train here I believe and considerable good ordnance. It looked strange enough to see the Rebs guarding as we first passed through town. We passed in going to camp a train carrolled & guarded. Many a friendly joke passed between our boys & the Rebs there. One of our men said, "Hollow, Johnnie, is that all your train"? "Yes", says Reb, "& we should not have had that much had it been for Banks". The Reb. Officers were apparently very sad over the / result of this struggle. I saw a Major while talking with some of our officers over the matter step one side to wipe the falling tears & to compose his feelings. Yet the people seem to take the result in a common sense way. They say 'let us forget the past, dispel every unkind feeling, be as zealous for the Union as we fought'. The Rebs are fast going home & to-day have nearly I judge quite left the place. Darky troops begin to arrive to relieve us and as I said before in a few days we shall be "homeward bound" I cannot realize I am soon to start home. So long have I shut out & restrained my longings to be there & free again, that even facts seem only a dream or flight of the imagination. But if God spares my life only two months longer I think instead of in Shreveport I shall be one in the family circle at my own Mountain Home. As it will take about twenty days for an answer to this to come west I guess you had better direct your next to me at Aztalan Jefferson C^o Wis. care of Sam^l De Merit. Hoping you have a delightful visit at M—, that I meet you there, & that God ever extend his hand under you, is the fond wish of                                                     

 

Your friend

John P. De Merit L^t & R.Q.M. 29^th Wis

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