#3



		Nashville, Tenn. Nov. 1st / '63
Dear wife I dont know but I shall tire you.
iff I write every day but I dont care I am
hearty as a buck I will now give you a detail
of our Journey From Detroit here we started from
Detroit on Wednesday Evening Oct. 28th and stayed
in the same car untill we got to Jeffersonville
Indiana we did not have anything worthy
of note on the road Except we took down
fifteen deserters all handcuffed two together
they were hard boys it was very pleasant
on the road but it rained on the morning
after we got to Jeffersonville before we got
out of the cars we was two nights and one
day on the road our coats got some wet
crossing the Ohio river on the steamer and
come up to the barracks in Louisville, Ken-
tuckey there we we stayed one day and night
and there was about 300 boys from Camp
Chase Ohio that came down the day before
we got there on their way they knocked
down their officers and the boats crew and
run the boat themselves they stove everything
to pieces took out part of the engine and
broke into. the hospital stores but was
finally disarmed and put in the guard-

House one soldier had 22 pairs of shoes in his
blanket in short they raised ned and turned up 
jack.  We we started for Nashville yesterday
morning and got here in the evening 185 miles
the car we was in got on fire in one of the
wheels so we had to leave it and go foot about
half a mile to get a car and there was none
to be got so we part climbed on the top
of the other cars and some on the platforms
I road on the platform of the hind car
and that was full of passengers there
was two young married ladies from
Quincy, Ill., that was going to Nashville
to see their husbands sick in the
			      about
hospital we find the people abb
all secest all the way from the Ohio
river we passed hundreds of farms
deserted by their owners the country
is allmost a barren waste all the
way in the slave states there is
now and then a man sticks to his
farm.  Our Regiment is on Elk River, Tenn.
we expect to start to-morrow morning
we went through thre four caves in
Kentucky one about 1½ one and one half 
miles long that was so dark in daylight

			Nov. 1st, 1863


that you could allmost feel [illegible in original] the darkness
the others were some shorter but was very
dark.  We are now quartered in the house of
the rebel gen Zolicoffer who was killed at Mill
Spring Kentucky his property was confiscated
by the US Gov it is not half done there is
about four hundred rooms in it it is five
story high and built of brick it would
cost yet to finish it not less than five
hundred thousand dollars which would
make it worth one million dollars so
secest costs something there is about one
thousand men in here, five hundred
came with us and the house is not
half full yet I shall soon have to close
for I have promised to write for another 
one of our boys who lives in Saginaw.
The express charges on that money was paid
in Detroit and so was the charges on our clothes
I kept my woolen shirt and cap to wear so
no more at present. Kiss the children for me
and take one yourself goodbye untill I get to
the next station.     Simeon Howe
Direct to first Mich Engineers and mechanics
Co M Cap E P Gifford via Nashville
don't send anything but letter until after I write more