Memphis, Tenn. Sept. 16, 1863

 

My Dear Sister:

                        Your letter of the 1^st was received yesterday. Why it should take a letter ten days to go from Marietta to Cairo, and four days to come from that point here is one of those Post Office mysteries, hard to be understood. Uncle Sam's mail is proverbially slow, but when it requires 14 days to carry a letter over a distance easily traversed in four, it is getting rather too steep.

 

            I do not remember that I have ever written to you concerning the cemetery here in Memphis. It is very beautiful, and is worthy of notice. It is called called "Elmwood Cemetery". It is well laid out with carriage roads and walks which are constantly kept in good condition. The walks in many places are lined with beautiful / shrubbery, evergreens, etc., and fine shade trees scattered thick everywhere, make it a place of refreshing coolness in a warm day. Seats scattered here and there invite the visitor to rest himself as he ponders over the lessons to be learned in this city of the dead. Scarcely ten years have elapsed since the cemetery was opened, and yet thousands sleep there the quiet sleep of death. There are some very fine monuments, that must have cost thousands of dollars. No very celebrated personage is buried here; that is no one of national reputation. I was pleased with the designs and inscriptions on some of the graves. Especially touching did the design that I saw placed over the graves of two small children seem. There was a small box covered with glass, inside which were placed the little shoe, and toys of the child. Some heartless scoundrel had broken the glass, and I have no doubt abstracted some toy / that pleased his eye. Other inscriptions pleased me for their brief tenderness. Such as, "Our Mother"; "Little Willie"; "Our darling Allie". After reading the labored panegyrics inscribed upon some costly monument, it was really refreshing to turn to these simple words of affection. In this cemetery sleep about 3000 soldiers; probably about an equal number of our own men and of the rebels. The sons of Iowa, Illinois, Ohio,—indeed of every Northwestern state are buried here. I think that these states ought to unite, and see that the space included by these graves is surrounded by a neat railing, and some fitting monument erected to their memory.

 

            There are other cemeteries in Memphis, two of which I have seen. They are not so large or as well laid out as "Elmwood", however. They are older. however I saw on a headboard in one of them an inscription which / I will transcribe for you verbatim et literatum.

 

            "Remember Me When This You See.

            Remember Me With A Tone Of Grace

            Remember I will Meat The At The Throne of Grace"

 

                        If that is not an unintelligible jargon of bad spelling, I have never seen a specimen of that kind.

 

            Every once in a while, a party of refugees pass through this city on their way North. It is impossible to see the miserable condition of these persons without having a feeling of pity aroused. They are very poor and exceedingly ignorant; "poor white trash", whom slavery has reduced to the most abject state of misery. A sight of them is well calculated to inspire an increased hatred of that system which is the cause of their ignorance and degradation. Some however are intelligent and have only been reduced to poverty and misery in consequence of the malice and hatred excited against them for their devotion to the Union.

 

            Yesterday I sent you a Memphis Bulletin, with a little paper for Eddy. There are three papers published here the "Bulletin", "Argus", and "Journal". The Bulletin is far the best.

 

            Enclosed I send a little red card, which you can give either to Eddy or Fanny, whichever you think it will please the most. Tell them to look through it, and see how pretty everything looks.

 

            But I must close.        

 

Write often to

Your Brother

George.

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