Monday, April 28, 2014

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, July 10, 1862

HEADQUARTERS 54TH REGT. O. V. I.,
CAMP NEAR MOSCOW, July 10, 1862.

. . . I wrote you a long letter from this point about the first inst., which I entrusted to a division train going to Memphis. This train was attacked by the enemy's cavalry and a sharp skirmish ensued, in which they had twenty-eight killed. We lost eighteen, and what the fate of my letter is I do not know. If the “Secesh” get it I trust they will find its perusal interesting. We have been marching and countermarching until our troops are well-nigh done out. Water is hard to be got in this country at this season of the year, and we suffer very much from thirst and the heat of the sun. Although fatigued, my health continues good, but my duties are very arduous. You can have no conception of the suffering attendant upon a march of a whole division with three or four batteries of artillery, over these roads. There has been no rain for a long time; as the train proceeds the dust rises and the whole heavens for miles in extent are obscured, the light of the sun dimmed, while the atmosphere becomes so thick that one can scarcely breathe. We commence our march at about four o'clock, halt about ten, or at four o'clock in the evening, going to camp about ten. Camp for me is simply to dismount at the tree under which I propose to lie. There I lie down and go to sleep.

I have this moment received orders to march and must close here. . . .

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 220-1

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