No. 1st Baton Rouge, La, June 15th Dear, Brother & Sister It is A long time since I wrote to you or have heard from you since I last wrote we have have been moving most of the time, my health is far better at the present than it has been for A long time the exposure & hardships we have endured have not A paralel in the whole Ca mpaign many a constitution is now telling the tale of suffering but the half will never be told but I must say to the credit of the brave sons of the West that it was without A mu rmur many of them who left with A bright prospect now sleep beneath the sod we have not as many sick now as when we first came here I will give you A short description of our journey here the dates of our leaving & of our [stopages?] along the river I will not give but will relate in part what we saw & what we met with. Well to begin we left Ship Island the 15th of April the S.W. Pass ran up laid at that place about. 10. days were then ordered to Black Bay, or Pass Culoutre [?] staid there 2 days were ordered back to S.W. Pass went back were ordered to New Orleans after much delay we were steaming up the river nothing of any importance occurred to us while lying at the mouth of the river while there we buried one Wisconsin man he was sewed up in Camp A bag of sand tied to him droped in the water to rise not again until A War more terrible than the present shall wake his peac eful slumbers we were at the mouth of the river while the mortar Fleet were taking Forts Jackson & Philip we could hear the [illegible in original] der it was. 40. miles distant it sounded like thun ^ slowly but steadily we passed along the see may [?] for 40 miles was nothing but one complete Marsh of A Cane Breaks & tall grass inhabited only by Aligators Cranes & Buzards it was all under Watter the river was spoted over with Cotton float ing down the banks were lined with Cotton whole Bales of it sometimes A fire raft would come drifting down but as the rebels call us the damed Yankees t & sons of Bitches were altogether to smar^ for them, as we came up to the Forts all was quiet the Stars & Stripes were proudly waving at both places the lone sentinel was treading with A slow pace his lonely beat Fort Philip is A beautiful place on the east side of the river Jackson opposite at this place the river is very narrow Philip is breast work thrown up with A few large guns mounted at the top while Jackson st on the opposite side is one of the stronge^ Forts I ever saw it is built of stone & Brick it mounts two tier of guns the Parafet guns lay as thick as logs in A mill yard the Fort mounted n nearly 300, guns ma^y of them were dismounted by shots from our Fleet the walls we not hurt much as it was it looked like as if that hail storm ide had passed that way how it looke ins^ I would not say but from what I could learn it must have looked like the scrapings of Hell on some other - - foreign place we have A man in our Co who wa sin it he says the shell were poured in like Hail stones one hit the table that he was eating off & knocked everything into A cocked hat after pasing the Forts we found some beautiful Plantations of Cane & Corn the slaves were at work in the fields often 100 of them in one gang some of the grandest scenery I ever saw in my life I saw along the river Grange trees loaded with ripe Oranges Magnolia trees in full blossom only ly they seemed spell bound were perfect^ astonished [?] at the approach of the Yankees many expected we were some sort of horible beings with horns or half animal at least No 2d some of them told me that they had been told that we were such at first they were afraid to come near us well on we went until we came in sight of New Orleans the rebels had built breast work on both sides of the River from the River back to the woods as far as we could see & mounted Guns well when our Gun Boats went up the damed rebels opened fire on them but A few broadsides of shell grape & canister made the them hunt their hole knocked their guns off Cariages when we went up they lay around like so many logs some of them ran into an old Sugar Refinery but something came knocking not at the door but the whole shanty I dont know what it was but it left the brick wall & roof look like what the yankess call A sieve & quite coarse at that some of the holes were large enough for A whole family to walk into at once ask some of those black devils what made them holes they will politely t introduce you to A machine abou^ 12 or 15 ft long with A rat hole in r one end about , 12, inches in diameter^ & tell you that is the Gentleman & also that he is more than A cuss [?] he weighs several tons or more there is plenty of them in sight of our quarters they lay there gazing at the City in silence we ran up to the City the rebels had burned the Levy or dock also all of the boats the could not move up the river all over the City can be seen places where Cotton was piled up & burned we were ordered to land the harbor was full of Gun boats & Sloops well to get up to land was the next thing we ran up as best we could threw A rope Ashore the Landing crowded with men woman & children of all colors & Grades no one took the rope out jumped A dozen or more of the boys & waded ashore tied up the boat out went the Gang plank as soon as the order was given the boys jumped on shore There was such A crowd d that wanted to see the dame^ Yankees that we had to charge bayonet to clear the way you better believe that made them get up climb [?] we were formed in line given the order to load at g will load as cooly as if huntin^ squirrels the boys took out their Cartridges loaded their guns before the crowd could scarcely tell what was being done the band took its place at the head of the column the order was given up by our no ch ble Commander to forward mar^ we started of with the tune Yankee doodle not A word was said but the boys grated thier teeth as much as to say stand back or I will give you A dose of Yankee pills that would lay heavy on bowels hail Columbia star spangeled Baner & several other national airs were played & here let me say & I feel proud to do so that our Regt was the first to march through the streets of New Orleans with colors flying slowly but firmly moved the long line from street to street untill we reached the M. S. Mint there we turned in for quarters & right glad we were to get on land we had been 18 days on the water many of the boys had diarrhea we No, 3d staid in the City about A week were ordered up the river right glad we were to leave New Orleans it is one of the filthiest places the City lays lower than the River its inhabitants are of all nations on the fase of God earth talk all languages you may judge how effective our Blockade has been the people were in A starving condi tion Coffe 2.50. per, lbs, Flour 50.00 per Barrell Boots and shoes any price A dealer might ask such as 25 to 30,00 per, pair many of the people were in A starving condition they used to come to our Camp to beg business of all kinds was shut up it would astonish you to have visited the City when we did the rebels destroyed all they could before they left After staying A week or so we were t ordered up the River up we wen^ our transports are rebel Steamboats that have been captured there was two Regts the 4th Wisconsin & 6th Mich Gen Williams is our Brigadier Gen. Butler is Major Gen off up the river we started with 4 days rations not knowing where we were going when we came up the river was very high the water rose above the levy the Country all alo ng the River was unde water fo ms [?] back from the River we had several Gun Boats with us [text crossed out] [text crossed out] t [text crossed out] the firs^ thing we did after leaving N O was to run up 50. ms land our forcer [?] all except two sections of Battery which we had to leave on the boat we landed about 4 oclock in the afternoon started off for the Rail Road which was 6 ms from the river it was late when we started for about A mile we had good road the rest was A Cuyprus Swamp so common to d this Country into this we jumpe^ the only way we could get through was in single file on we went sometimes into the mud & water up to our waist the day was hot but when we came to the swamp it was still hotter just picture yourself 2,000 men single file wading A Cuyprus Swamp 5 ms in diameter & you have a scene to horrible to imma gine not A foot of dry ground to be found on we went often tim es being obliged to cling to limbs of trees Cane Breakes logs anything t to keep from sinking out of sigh^ we had not gone far ere night came upon us after sometime the moon rose which made it A little better many of the men had not A drop of Water you could often see the men blow off the scum & take A drink I had no water with me I took off my Hat diped up some of it was as much worse than A Mich Goose Pond as you could imagine many of the men tired out before getting half way through the men got all mixed in this way we worked until about 11, oclock when those that were stout enough emerged from the swamp on to the Rail Road the first thing we done was to cut the Telegraph & tear up the track burn the ties at the pla ce we expected A fight but the enemy had all left we worked until tierd our wraped our Blankets round us laid down on the ground & slept til morn when as it went again burning bridges ties tearing up the track our pickets killed 2 men wounded 2 took about A dozen No , 4, th Prisoners about noon we were formed in line the day was very hot we had now 16 ms of Rail Road to march over 8 of it was over A bridge of tressel work the ties were so far apart that it was all we could do to step from one to another at our object was to cut off the retre^ of the rebels back to New Orleans after A long tedious march we ts reached the river where our boa^ were waiting for us that night we Camped on shore the next day part of our troop were sent back to burn the tressel Bridge returned in the afternoon at night the boys most of them went out took everything that they wanted I was out with some of them I shot two Beeff Cattle cut the throats of two more off with my Coat rolled up my sleeves & went in on my nerves dhysed them took them back to Camp some got mutton some Beeff others Pork chickens Turkeys Geese Honey Butter any thing we wanted our Camp looked like A Slaughter House next morn, at, 5, in the morn we cast off & started up the river for N O Baton Rouge landed at which place some of our sloops were lying, our men marched up to the M S Arsnel staid to about an hour back down ^ the boat we went brought our thin d gs ashore posted A guard cooke^ all night up the river the next morn stoped next place at Natches on the opposite side of the River killed what ted cattle hogs sheep & Goats we wan^ cooked all night of up the river next morn buried 20 men, 10, ms below Vicksburgh ran up to Vicksburgh lay below that place ten days did not make an attack on that place our Gun boats run up close to the City our fleet droped down the river about 15 ms, ( A part of them) turned round went up as far as Vic ksburgh again sent out scouts n orders came for us to go dow^ stream again the two boats loaded with the Inft & Battery t started down the river without^ anything to Guard us the Gen went ahead supposing all was right when passing A small town called Grand Gulf A rebel Battery opened fire on them killing 1 man wounding 2 more the rebels fired about 50 shots seven of them struck the boat one hit A chair A man was sitting on to be shared let him down on the floor tore the chair to pieces our boat was behind we supposed all was clear did not know anything of the affair just as we were rounding to at the same place to take in wood when within 100 rods of the Battery they opened on us with Shot Grape & Canister I was standing on the lower deck looking at the place when whiz went A 6 pounder over my head I did not m know at first where it came fro^ I soon found out looking on shore I saw A cloud of smoke they had Guns bearing on us [Upside down] I have just been out Blackberying They are very No , 5th plenty here the troops are muring [?] to day 6th stay here [End of upside down] at the time we had not 20 lbs of steam not A bit of Wood the Grape Canister & Balls whistled around above on all sides of like hail stones 20 of them went through s the cabin deck it as is alway^ the ease all confusion the boys opened on them with their rifles killed two of them we had two 12 lbs How tzers but did not get but 2 shots as we were obliged to let the current drift us down it was A flying Gurrillia Band down the River we went tied up to the first wood pile soon down the river came the Gun Boats to see what was the mater up the river came another with the Gen we all halted reported to the Camedore all went back up to the place again the Gun Boats went ahead they ran up close to the place & opened on it & it beats Hell amazingly how they did make themselves acquainted with the town I immagine that some of the people thought that we were not very bashful the way we st piled our marble in among^ them at night we all landed sacked the town but did not burn it it has since been burned next morn we left down the River the Country here is infected with bands of Gurillias they fired on our men at Baton Rouge one of our sloops of war were lying here at the time she opened A broadside on the place you can find plenty of rat holes all over town it made things git some of the shell passed into the Country 5 ms before they burst I saw A piece 12 lbs in weight 3 ms from out where I was on Picket A week t ago to day last ------ last nigh^ I was down town stoped in A Saloon there was A peice of 20 lbs weight laying in on the Bar which burst in the Chamber of the building I called for A dozen Eggs Boiled & they only charged me 1,00 Butter 75 cts per pound Coffe 2,50, Corn meal 5,00 per bushel Salt, 20, cts per pound Chicken, 60, cts, Turkeys 3,00 Milk 10 cts per quart the people are [Upside down] We are reported as unfit for duty many sick dying off quite fast June 16th [End upside down] here as everywhere in this Country almost starved the Country is prety much [illegible in original] we have about 200 Contraband 50 Wagons 200 mules 50 yoke Oxen we are confu confisicating all the rebel property it is not so I can tell you half the news I have written in A hurry excuse all mistakes our Fleet Mortar & Gun Boats have gone up to attack Vicksburg direct, to , Baton Rouge, La Excuse my short letter I will do better next time yours in haste G,B, Surdam, Segt [On the side] write as soon as you get this very hot to day