Click here for this soldier’s biography:
https://micivilwar.com/authors/wasson-john/
Regiment: 2nd Michigan Cavalry
Battles Mentioned: Belmont, Missouri
Historical Figures:
Collumbia Kentuckey Sep the 3 62
Dear Uncle
I take this opportunity to let you
know my whereabouts we left Detroit
mondy night at eight oclock September
the 1
st and went to Jollyette and then took
the U. central railroad to cairo a distance
of about 600 miles in about 26 hours when
we got to Cairo we took the boat to Collumbers when
we ar now is one of the hardist looking that ever
you saw there is not a deacent house in the
whole town but one or two and one of them is
the depot the streets is turnpike up like
our roads and the side walkes ar the same and
except one or two places they ar brick they soil
is a hevy kind of blue clay so in muddy
wether you can guess what kind of a place
it is the houses ar old shaky and there is not
twelve painted houses in the whole place
tire is not assigns of a dock in the place attall
and the boats have to
[ ? ] right aganst a clay
about fifty feet high so steep that the mule
teens can onley draw about two or three
hundred up it at a time and the Niggers have
role it part way at that and now for they folks
they look like the verry last end of creation
there houses ar dity and the children as a
about naked and I can hardly tell whitch
looks the worst the Negroes or the whitey the
[ ? ] about in the tents almost
waked up to ten years old but
[ ? ]
[ ? ] cannot describe all about it and if
you want to know any more about it you
will have no come down here and see for
your self but I will tell you one
thing and that is that Ill. is one of
the finest states that ever I saw the whole
route that we come is all mos one vast
plain nothing to be seen but herds of cattle
[ ? ] of pain and hay nice farm houses
Villages in they distance immence piles
of corn and never ending cornfields
saw fields of corn that I could not se a
cros drove after drove of cattle with from 50 to
five hundred heard in them and I saw at
several times farmers comeing to town
[ ? ]
8 in a string some with two teemes with
corn bilt up on the wagons as high as they
could build it and I have seen in the illge-
s along the rout 15 and twent teems at a time
with corn some places it is as leval as
the ocen and you can se as far as they eye can
[ ? ] with nothing to obstruct the sight but
farm houses fields of corn heads of cattle
and horses stacks of grain with sometimes
20 in a place and evry now and then a
village in the distance other places it is
as rowling as you could wich with eary
now and then a strip of timber but I
can not express to you the buties of this
lovely states they last hundred miles
of they rout is not so nice a good deal of
it I covered with oak grubs and stunted
trees and somewhat broken and uneven but
if a man could not pick a farm in Ill.
to suit him there is not a place in the
while Univerce that he could Cairo is a
hard looking place you may think I am
have sick
[ ? ] I run these southern towns dow so
but just come down here and se for your
self and you will say that they ½
has not been told in coming down
the riber from Cairo to this place we
came by the place whare the Battle of
Bremont was faught and we could se
low the trees wer toren with shot and
shell over one year ago and now I must
tell you something about my affares I sent
$52 to WD Foster to day by express whitch
you can draw and lay out to they best
advantage we sent 479 Dollars in one pack-
age and onley cost us ½ percent by so doing
pay Asa Marshal the 25 dollars out of
it and then do with the rest of it the best
you can I expect that we will go on to
corrinth tomorrow but I can not tell yet
for newse came in on the cars to night
that they wer fighting today between
us and our regiment and also that
surgans band was within thirty miles
of here and the town is under Marshal
law and it is patrowled every half
hour by mounted men and evry boddy
found on the streets after 9 oclock is put
September the 41862
you will have to make your
one corrections for I have not
got time the order has come
to march in one hour
Collumbus 7 oclock A.M.
J.W.
