William A. Mellen to Cousin, 22 June 1863
[Letterhead:Head Quarters,
Seventy-Fourth Reg.   Illinois Volunteers.]
[Co.] C [, Camp] Near Murfreesboro June 22nd [1863.]
 
Dear Cousin
                                    your letter dated June 15teenth was received and we were much pleased to hear from you you do not know how much it cheers us up to receive letters from our friends I have been quite unwell for about a week from loss of appetite and fever but am feeling better now we have been having warm weather here a long time wensday of last week/being the hottest day we have had or that I think I ever saw I think this is one of the finest countries I ever saw the land is owned by slaveholders who own large plantations corn & cotton fields surrounded by grand old forests of cedar oak & hickory they have splendid dwelling houses with all kinds of fruit & shade trees the peaches & plums are nearly ripe and apples are nearly half grown almost everything is different here from what they are north but for all that I shall always prefer the cold & chilly north to/the sunny south we have been having easier times since we came here than we did for the first three or four months but though we have endured many hardships & privations I have never regreted that I enlisted to fight for the union I may never survive to return home but if I fall on the field of battle I shall have the consolation of feeling that I could never die in a better cause I suppose Issac has written the rest of the news so I will close give my love to all the friends no more at present from your Cousin
William A Mellen
403
DATABASE CONTENT
(403)DL0032.00515Letters1863-06-22

Letter from Edward Gilbert, 74th Illinois Infantry, Camp Near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, June 22, 1863, to his Cousin


Tags: Food, Mail, Nature, Planters/Plantations, Slavery, Unionism, Weather

People - Records: 1

  • (409) [writer] ~ Mellen, William A.

Places - Records: 1

  • (224) [origination] ~ Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee

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SOURCES

William A. Mellen to Cousin, 22 June 1863, DL0032.005