Memphis Tennessee

                                                                                                                        Nov 17^th 1862

 

Dear Miriam

                        When I started to write to you we were getting ready to start for Dixie we arrived here yesterday all right We started from Camp Butler on Tuesday afternoon and got to Alton that night the next morning we got on board of the steamer General Robert Allen and started for this place we were detained considerable on the way the river was verry low and the boat would run onto the sand bars and stop sometimes we would be detained from two to three hours. We got to Cairo thursday and passed New Madrid on friday morning. I did not see the / place as I was down in the hold of the boat when we passed there on saturday afternoon we stopped in Arkansis and camped there that night we slept on our arms that night as we expected to be attacked by six hundred Guerrillas we were all right as there was three thousand of us there together Sunday morning there was two men come into camp and was looking around considerable they come up and looked at us and then went down to the boat and looked at that It was about amile and ahalf from the place where we were camped they were arrested and kept awhile by order of Colonel Moore they were kept in custody until sunday evening when they were turned loose one of them was shot on sunday evening by some of the soldiers we do not / know by whom he was shot or to what regiment he belonged they both refused to take the oath of allegiance as they had been prisoners at camp But whether the man died or not I do not know The men amused themselves on sunday by shooting amans hogs that lived about ahalf mile from the camp he made great pretensions to being agood union man he was thought to be asecessionist by the most of the men as he was well fixed and had just built anew house and had plenty of good fat hogs most all the union men have been driven from the state of Arkansas and their property confiscated and it looked verry unreasonable that they should leave him some of the boys had killed a verry large nice fat hog and skinned it and brought it into camp they were verry jolly at the / thoughts of having some nice pork in place of the hard crackers we were using at that time. but alas for human calculations about that time the owner of the hog came up and claimed the hog the Colonel made the men pay him two dollars for killing the hog and carry it back to him. Tom Ralph Louis Nichols myself and several others were put out as patrol guards we arrested five men that had anice fat hog killed and skinned and brought them into the camp with the hog we had to wait for the Colonel an hour or more and then wait for orders from him it was for the men to eat the hog and kill no more they verry generously gave to us the trotters the two shoulders we cooked it and had afine meal we got to Memphis yesterday and marched out to this place which is about three miles / from Memphis as we was coming down on the boat there was a man poisoned to death he died in consequence of taking too much morphine how he got it we do not know we think likely he got it of one of the assistant surgeons he has been dead about four days and was not buried until today we could smell him twenty yards off or more There was four men fell overboard as we come down one of them was drowned one got to the shore it was thought that he jumped overboard apurpose to desert the other two were saved the body of the drowned man was not recovered Memphis is a verry large and pretty place there are agreat many of the inhabitants are strong secessionists some of them as we passed through the place patted / their rumps at us some of them would send their children out in to the yards and into the streets to hollow for Buregard and Jeff Davis. There has been a good many fires in Memphis lately what the cause of that is we do not know but from what I heard Stevens say I expect it was done by union men and the property belonged to secessionists.

 

Tuesday night our regiment or part of it went out and slept on the boat next morning we were told that there had been agreat alarm on it when we found out the cause it was this the guards halted a white cow the cow would not halt and the guards fired at her the men that were camped on board jumped to their feet and formed in line of battle but no enemy appearing they soon lay down to rest again We lived pretty hard as we come / down on the boat sometimes we had nothing to eat but crackers and coffee the place that we are encamped at is averry pretty place and we will fare verry well in aday or two we would be well satisfied if we only had the right kind of tents. the tents we now have are verry small they are not more than four feet high and six feet wide at the bottom we got in here late yesterday and did not have time to fix our tents well and last night it rained verry hard and the most of us got wet I did not get wet much. We can live verry well now in aday or two we will get soft bread again and rice homing meat potatoes and we have been getting sweet potatoes they are agreat deal sweeter than the potatoes that we get in the north we get them at eighty cents per bushel our mess have had them / two meals we throw in so much apiece and buy the delicacies that we need. There are no secession troops near here that we know of we are in about ninty miles of George I expect that your Father and me will go and see him soon the 22^nd [paper fold] all right when there is no enemy near Nashville now and there are plenty of supplies of all kinds there now. There is about thirty thousand troops here now and at Memphis I guess I will have to quit as it is getting dark I could write aweek tell Ma that I am at the south now and enjoy it first rate. You and her must not be troubled about me as I shall come out all right Write to me and dont forget to tell me all about Eddy I think of him and you every day and Ma too Nothing more but remains your affectionate husband until death H. B. Drake

SOURCES