Cairo, September 1, 1861. We had blankets given us this last week and new accoutrements throughout. If they would only change our guns now we would have nothing but a move to ask for. A uniform was also furnished us last week. It is of excellent all-wool goods, and not so heavy as to be [...]
Cairo, August 19, 1861. The boys are writing to-day for some butter and things from home. The expense by express from Peoria is not worth speaking of and the other boys have things sent them often. We have made up our minds to lying here six weeks longer at least, and conclude that time will [...]
Cairo, August 11, ’61. Our Canton boys came down on time, and right glad I am to have them here. Colonel Ross’s 17th Regiment got here the same day by the river. The boys were sworn into our company the day after they arrived, and the day following a lieutenant in the Fulton Blues came [...]
Cairo, August 2, 1861. Hot! You don’t know what that word means. I feel that I have always been ignorant of its true meaning till this week, but am posted now, sure. The (supposed-to-be) “never failing cool, delicious breeze” that I have talked about so much, seems to be at “parade rest” now and—I can’t [...]
Cairo, July 27, 1861 We number now about 60 and have 25 days in which to fill up to 100. Two hundred and fifty of our regiment of three-months’ men have re-enlisted. Two hundred and fifty out of 680, which is considerably better than any eastern regiment that I have seen mentioned. There was [...]
Cairo, July 1, 1861. Writing letters is getting to be harder work than drilling, and is more dreaded by the boys. Lots of people are visiting the camp now, many of them ladies, but I tell you that they use their fans more than their spy-glasses after a very few looks. I was up to [...]
Cairo, June 23, 1861. Camp is very dull now, and we are more closely confined in it than ever. Not a soldier goes out now except in company with a commissioned officer or on a pass from the general. The latter not one in a thousand can get and the former maybe one in five [...]
Cairo, June 13, 1861. I am converted to the belief that Cairo is not such a bad place after all. The record shows that less deaths have occurred here in seven weeks among 3,000 men, than in Villa Ridge (a higher, and much dryer place with abundant shade and spring water), in five weeks among [...]
Note: This letter—a document written in 1861—includes terms and topics that may be offensive to many today. No attempt will be made to censor or edit 19th-century material to today’s standards. Cairo, June 9, 1861. I have been over to Bird’s Point this morning for the first time. They have thrown up breastworks and [...]
Cairo, May 23, 1861. Lots of men come through here with their backs blue and bloody from beatings; and nine in ten of them got their marks in Memphis. A man from St. Louis was in camp a few days since with one-half of his head shaved, one-half of a heavy beard taken off, two [...]
May 17, 1861. Sun and dust. Hot as ___ the deuce. Lots of drilling and ditto fun. Suits me to a T. Am going in for three years as quick as I can. All chance for fight is given up here. We are getting sharp. We trade off our extra fodder for pies, milk and [...]
Sunday, May 12th, 6 p.m. Several men from Alabama arrived here to-day with their backs beaten blue. We caught another spy last night. The drums rolled last night at 11 and we all turned out in the biggest, dark and deepest mud you ever saw. It was a mistake of the drummer’s. Six rockets were [...]
Cairo, May 5, 1861, Sunday, 11 a.m. The bells are just ringing for church. I intended going, but it is such hard work getting out of camp that I concluded to postpone it. Anyway, we have service in camp this p.m. This is an awful lazy life we lead here. Lying down on our hay [...]
Cairo, April 28, ’61. This is the twilight of our first day here. We started from Peoria last Wednesday at 11 a.m. amid such a scene as I never saw before. Shouting, crying, praying, and shaking hands were the exercises. Along the whole line from Peoria to Springfield, from every house we had cheers and [...]