Memphis, Tenn. June 3, '63

 

Dear Brother:

                        Your last letter was received a day or two since. I had been looking for it, as I expected it to contain the receipt for that box which you sent from home. What has become of the box I know not. I have not yet received it. I inquired at the Express office here, and was informed that all boxes sent to Corinth fro for our Regiment had been returned to this point, and delivered over, and that there was none for me. As soon as I get the receipt, I will make a little more thorough investigation of the matter.

 

            We came very near going to Vicksburg the other day. We received orders, but in consequence of a large number of companies being absent on detailed service, they were counter- / manded, and troops from Jackson and Bolivar were sent in our place. Some 16 companies out of our Brigade are absent; some gone North, guarding prisoners, and others down the river, guarding stores. It is possible that we may at some future time yet be ordered away; but we hope not, for the climate is full warm enough here. Two hundred additional miles southward, together with the artificial aid of thickly flying shot and shell would be decidedly too much for comfort. If we have to go, however, of course we will try to make the best of it.

 

            We had a death in our company the other day, the first one since my connection with it. It was a young lad, aged 17, the who joined the company about the same time with myself. His name was Norton Adams,—a cousin, I believe of Ham Adams. He has been almost all the time in the same squad with / me, and I took a good deal of interest in him, partly on account of his extreme youth. It was a pure patriotism that brought him out to endure the hardships of a soldier fare. He was naturally of a delicate mould, but he endured marches and exposure right manfully, never uttering a murmuring word. I have often been surprised at his endurance. He was taken sick at Corinth with the flux, but he became better so that his recovery seemed very probable but after our arrival here a relapse took place, which soon put an end to his life. In a moral point of view, he was a good boy. Amidst the temptations of camp life he he preserved his good character unblemished. Not a single stain rests upon it. But it was in his death that his character shone brightest. He died the death of a Christian hero. Death had no terrors for him. He wished that he might be able to look upon the faces of his father / and mother and sisters at home, but if God's will was otherwise he was content. His trust in his Saviour was complete. His last words to me were: "Good bye; we will meet in heaven". We laid him away to rest in a beautiful grove, where the birds warble to his memory in the tree top and the sunbeam stealing through the branches rests quietly on his grave.

 

            I have made a pretty thorough exploration of the city of Memphis, but I will mention only one thing noticed by me, in this letter. There is a small park in the city, in the center of which stands a bust of Jackson. On one side of the marble pedestal on which it stands are inscribed his famous words, "The Federal Union: It must be preserved". Now Memphis you know was a rank nest hole of secession. This monument, standing in the very heart of their city was a sharp rebuke to the abetters of treason, and it finally became so unendurable that they tried to erase the offensive words with a chisel. I fancy that the stern features of the old man in the bust must have glowed into life at the insult, and frightened the vandal from his work; for after marring the word "Federal" and one letter of the word "Union", he stopped. But they did not succeed in erasing the words, any more than they have succeed in their attempts at destroying our Government, and there the monument yet stands, with the stars and stripes floating over it, a rebuke to sympathizers with treason.

 

            The citizens here are being made to walk up to the mark. They have 20 days to take the oath of allegiance in or to be registered as enemies. Hundreds are daily taking the oath.

 

            I do not recollect whether I asked mother to send me paper and envelopes or not, but I need them, being nearly out. That you may have some little /

 

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idea of the quantity that I use I will say that since I have come to Memphis I have written fifteen letters.

 

            Has Maxwell ever spoken to you about my picture. If he has not, I wish you would have two or three more copies taken, if the negative is still at the photograph gallery and give one of them to him, retaining the others for the present. Possibly "some of these fine days I may have one taken here in my soldier uniform if you wish it at home.

 

            Tell mother not to send me any more stockings, for if I get that box I will have more than I know what to with. I have 4 pair now.

 

            As for sending Government socks home it won't pay. They are too cheap, only costing 26 cents a pair. I have not drawn more than three or four pair since entering the service and as I said before have four good pair now.

                                                           

Your Brother

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