Wednesday, April 9, 2008

A Private Letter from W. S. Brown, of the 6th Iowa Infantry, to the Rev. Ziba Brown of this County.

Grand Junction, Tennessee;
Jan. 19th 1863

Dear Father:

Yours, dated Jan. 4th, has been received and read, by me, to the boys of my company, who gave their opinion of it as being decidedly good.

Your anxiety about me, founded on the supposition that I was with Gen. Sherman at Vicksburg, was all for nothing, but I do wish we had been there instead of staying here with [a] one long cared Grant,” for I believe we could have taken the place. And Besides, I feel sorry that I was not in some battle, and wounded and sent home, not that I wish to shirk my duty, or anything of that sort; but if I was at home, I would send some disloyalists to their long homes – unprepared of course.

I almost think that George is not a true loyalist if he does not upset some of them at least. It makes my Brown blood boil within me when I think that such ts [sic: as?] they should be permit to remain at home and discourage enlistments and kick up broils.

Now I think it would be but fun to let daylight through them and stop them in their work of treason.

Just such men as they are, your own boys left home to battle with, and how long will you permit them to remain in your midst?

The wet season has, at last, commenced, and weeks have already past [sic], and more coming. Health generally good, and no hopes of a fight soon.

One half of our time has already expired and we have only had one fight, and seven skirmishes, I can hardly miss the time; but I presume if I could see the once little ones – now almost grown, it would make me know that time had something to do with it.

We are still passing over the country through which I traveled while a prisoner thereby affording me ample opportunity for c[o]aliation [sic]:

When I recount the suffering and sorrow that I have endured since my enlistment, and look forward to what I will probably have to endure before this work of rebellion is stopped, I have but little hope of again enjoying the blessings of the family circle.

There are some boys now in service who are well and fully able for duty, but have applied for discharges – a thing I will never be guilty of.

W. S. Brown

- Published in The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, February 14, 1863

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