(No 1)              RBL to parents

                                                                                  

U. S. Military Telegraph.

Sunday Dec. 6^th 1863

By Telegraph from Cowan Tenn. 1863

 

To Dear Parents:

         Here I am safe & sound in this beautiful place in the heart of the Cumberland Mountains. Just one week ago tonight I left home, & I propose to give you a short account of my travels. After leaving Georgie on the bridge, I went back to the depot, & in a few minutes was safely on board the train for Chicago. Didn't sleep any that night, & about six oclock in the morning arrived at Chicago. There the first man I saw almost, was Pat Hines, who runs for one of the railroads. He took me & my baggage to a hotel where he stops, & took a general care of me. Indeed he rendered me very valuable assistance. I went to telegraph office, & found Mr. Cobb not at home. His brother, who was there, said he could / not help me. Went around to 2 or 3 more men, & had almost despaired of getting a pass, when Pat Hines recommended me to go to Henry Wentworth Gen'l Pass Agt of M.C.R.R. I did so & stated my case to him when he said, he left his pass-book at home but would give me pass to New Albany if I would come to his office about three (two) oclock P.M. There I telegraphed to father & made all preparations for the journey. Started from Chicago at 5 P.M. Met At on the same with a gentleman, whom, on our engaging in conversation, I found to be a cousin of the Newell boys. He was well acquainted with Mrs. Frank & sevral other ladies in Kenosha. He has two cousins now in Taylor's battery, name Wilcox, perhaps you remember him. At Mich. City, we changed cars for New Albany but the trains lay over at Lafayette Ind. By neglecting to have the waiter call me next morning, I slept till after the train had started & was obliged to wait till the next day. Went to the Tel. office and sent a message to Cass. The opr. there was very obliging, & was rather remarkable as an operator. He had to / tend to 5 machines alone, & take 4 reports daily. I went around the city & found it to be quite a large place with about 12 or 15000 inhabitants. There were a great many nice houses & public buildings among which were the State Bank of Ind. the Court house & the Lahr House at which later I stopped. There they set a table almost as good as a 1^st class house in Chicago. Wednesday morning I left on the train for Louisville riding through a very rocky country. Sometimes we would be on the top of a hill with a valley on each side of us at others in a deep gorge cut, with walls of solid limestone towering 20 or 30 feet above our heads: again we would be on the side of a hill, with green fields below on one side & on the other huge walls of rock. Just before we got into New Albany / I had a small adventure. I had taken my seat in front of a beautiful young lady who was travelling with an elderly one & a little girl. Suddenly she (the young lady I mean) put her head forward to a level with mine & said "Good evening Tommy". Being some what surprised, I simply said good evening & turned around. Then she asked me if I was going home. I said yes, & we had quite a conversation. After a while, she looked at me more particularly & asked me if I was not Tommy agt. Bells Agt & Opr. at some small town along the road. Then came the denouement, & it was a funny scene. After we got to New Albany, I offered my services to the family, but as I had to go right over to Louisville & didn't know anything about the town I couldn't do much. I then got on the bus & was driven to the landing & (after waiting about half an hour there), on the ferry-boat. It took about 20 minutes to cross the river, & during these 20 minutes & through the window of an the bus, on a dark night I got my first impressions of the Great Ohio. 

 

After crossing the river, we rode about three miles, & came upon the city of Louisville at about 9½ P.M. Was driven to the Louisville Hotel, booked my name & then went to the Tel. office. Having been ordered to by a message I got from Cass at Lafayette to report to Capt Breck for transportation and military pass, I went to the office & found out where he lived. While there I got a military pass from Capt Vanduzer, mili assistant supt. at Nashville, so all I wanted was the transportation. Went to Capt Breck's house, & held a palaver with him head out of his bedroom room window, myself being on the doorstep. He told me to call next morning & he would give me transportation. / I did so, & received a note to the Supt of the L & N R.R. Down to the depot, there was the biggest crowd I ever saw in a depot, & I couldnt find the Supt. Looked for him, whe till the train was about to start, when I hopped aboard, resolved to run the chances of being put off by the Conductor. He however allowed me to stand up all the way to Nashville. Just as I loo was going to leave for the Tel. ofs. I met Cass, whom I slightly astonished by my growth. Went with him & saw Capt. Van Duzer, who is a very pleasant man indeed. He determined to send me here, & consequently I started for here on yesterday morning, leaving the Nashville & Chattanooga R.R. depot at 7 A.M. & getting here at 3 P.M. Cowan is a town of about 100 inhabitants & 500 soldiers, situated in a bend of the Cumberland Mountains, which loom up on 3 sides of of it like guardian giants. The scenery around here is truly grand, & on such a pleasant day as this all warmth & sunshine is calculated 

 

The principal mountain in this part of the range is about 7 or 800 feet high. There is a tunnel through the lower part of the range & a little south of the town. The R.R. goes be right up the hill, & an engine called the "pusher" is employed to help trains up the grade. Am going up on the engine there tomorrow or next day & take a look from the top of the hills & will give you a description of what I see in my next.The office is situated in half of a house that belongs to a slightly garrulous secesh woman, whose grandmother, as she informed us today at dinner was a sister of Zach. Taylor, & whose mother read Latin with Henry Clay. So you see she may call herself a "first family". She says she will send her boys to show us a cave about 3 miles / out of the "city", & that if ever the rebels make a raid up this way that she will protect us, because as she said she could drive Bragg's whole army. As for myself, I dont much doubt her assertion, for her tongue is a terrible weapon. Our office is very dirty but I will try to remedy that in the morning. We have two machines here, the R.R. & the Govt. Being right on the only line of communication between the north & Chattanooga, we hear constantly hear the most important Govt. despatches going through. There are two operators here, a boy by the name of Rockwell & myself. The one I was sent to relieve left for this morning. I work from 12 noon to 12 midnight & then he gets up & works till next noon. We have but 3 or 4 messages daily. We pay the tha woman our rations & $10 a month, & get very good board. This part of the south is not so destitute as many suppose. We will have some venison tonight for supper. There is a fort or rather earthwork here & 2 stockades, just like lots I saw coming down from Louisville. A feller has just brought in a "possum".

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