Memphis, Tenn. June 29, 1863.

 

Dear Sister:

                        Your welcome letter came to hand this morning. I was somewhat anxiously looking for a letter from home, as I had received none for about a week. I did not receive the letter that you spoke of as having been written by mother the day before your own; neither is it probable that I will receive it for a couple of weeks to come, as it has probably gone the way of all her letters lately: that is to the 37^th Ohio. It is very vexatious to be compelled to submit to such delays, and I wish that mother would be very careful to make her figures plain.

 

            I have attended church in the city several times lately. There is no Baptist Church open. One Baptist edifice is used as a hospital. / The church that I attended yesterday I think was a Methodist. The church edifice was a very neat one, without any pretensions to elegance. The choir was a pretty good one. They sang one tune that reminded me strongly of home. I do not recollect the name, and I do not know that I ever heard it sung before except by Hiram and myself. He will probably recollect it as being the one in the Julilee set to the words

 

            'Tis by thy strength the mountains stand."

 

The text was Psalm 119:130. "The entrance of thy words giveth light." He spoke of the world's indebtedness to the Bible; of its superior excellence in a literary point of view, etc. All that he said was true, and sometimes well said. But he strangely overlooked its main excellence, namely that it lightens up our destiny here and hereafter, which without it is shrouded in dense darkness. Unfortunately for me he made use of a / long illustration without any credit, verbatim, that I recollect to have read only a few days previously. After that I could not help thinking that perhaps the rest of his sermon had a like origin. His sermon smelled of books, much more than of his own mind.

 

            Young men are an ingredient not seen in audiences here. They are nearly all in the secesh army. Their place in church however is more than filled by the hated Yankees. Fully ¼^th of the audience was of this class.

 

            The women here have not the healthy, rosy look of those at the North, but on the contrary, many of them are exceedingly pale. They use paint without end. I should hardly dare to kiss one of them until after an application of water to their her faces, lest I should be poisoned. Of course my remarks are only general. I have seen some exceedingly handsome women. I don't think we soldiers are in a very / good condition however to judge of beauty; for having been deprived of the sight of woman so long, we now think almost any ordinary woman face a paragon of beauty. I regret to say that I have more than once felt constrained to refute the assertion on the part of my fellows that the women of the South exceed their sisters of the North in beauty. Of course I could not prove so disloyal as to admit such a proposition for a moment. Perhaps it was the recollection of the grace and beauty of some of Marietta's fair daughters that impelled me to this course. Don't you think they owe me a debt of gratitude for my defense of them in this Southern clime. I've very little expectation that they will ever pay it however.

 

            Certainly all the women of the South are not handsome or intelligent, for I have seen some of the ungainliest, lankest, greenest, tobacco using specimens of women here that I have have ever met with.

 

            I notice that crinoline is going out of fashion here. The change does not tend to improve the appearance of the set in my opinion.

 

            Enclosed you will find a picture of myself. The pants which I was wearing at the time it was taken were not fitted by any fashionable tailor as you will readily perceive, they being of elephantine proportions. Their light blue the picture renders white. My shoes also you will notice as of gunboat size. They are especially fitted for overland voyages. There is no discount on their size when it comes to the march. I do not know whether I have much altered in features or not. Fifteen or twenty pounds have been added to my weight. I am now in excellent health and the best of spirits. My comrades tell me that I have altered greatly for the better physically. The picture is what I intended it to be a rough soldier likeness. I am pleased to have Mr. Leonard's picture. It is exceedingly natural.

 

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Write soon to Your Brother. George. Some of these days I as Autocrat may hold another supper. For the past week or two I have been feasting off the contents of that box.

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