CAMP ON HERNANDO ROAD,
NEAR MEMPHIS,
2 O'CLOCK A.M., Sept.
15, 1862.
MY DEAR SISTER:
At eleven o'clock last night as I was about to “turn in” an
orderly came dashing up through the rain with despatches advising me that the
Brigadier-General commanding had reliable information that our pickets were to
be attacked this night or morning, rather, by the enemy's cavalry, and ordering
me to double my picket guard. Being some distance from our main army and my
outside pickets being three miles distant from me, and having a six-gun battery
under my command attached to my regiment, after giving my orders and disposing
of my forces, I feel indisposed for sleep and know not how I can better put in
the residue of the night than by writing to my dear sister Helen, whose
affectionate letter of the 8th inst. with inclosure is now before me, being
this day received.
I send you a picture of General Sherman and staff, numbered
thus —
1. Lieutenant Taylor, 5th Ohio Cavalry, Aide-de-Camp.
2. Major J. H. Hammond, Assistant Adjutant-General.
3. Captain Dayton, 6th Ohio Infantry, Aide-de-Camp.
4. Major Taylor, of Taylor's Battery, Chief of Artillery.
5. Capt. J. Condict Smith, Division Quartermaster.
6. General Sherman.
7. Col. Thos. Kilby Smith, of 54th Ohio Inf. Zouaves.
8. Captain Shirk, U.S.N., Commander of gunboat Lexington,
which threw the shells at Shiloh.
9. Major Hartshorne, Division Surgeon.
10. Col. W. H. H. Taylor, 5th Ohio Cavalry.
11. Capt. James McCoy, 54th Ohio Inf. Zouaves, Aidede-Camp.
12. Major Sanger, 55th Illinois Inf., Aide-de-Camp.
These, with two exceptions, were together and did service at
the battle of Shiloh; the names of some of them will adorn the pages of
history. The Quartermaster looms up among them like Saul among the prophets, a
head and shoulder above the rest. He stands six feet four and a half inches
high in his stocking feet, and I have a private in the ranks in my regiment who
is three inches taller than he.
Tell mother she need not be alarmed about Sherman's sanity;
his mind is sound, his intellect vigorous. He is a man for the times. His
enemies are seeking to destroy him. The whole article she sends is replete with
falsehood. No city in the Union has a better police, is more accurately
governed than Memphis. It is sufficient for me to say to mother that the whole
article is false from beginning to end. Tell dear mother I will write her
shortly; that meanwhile, to be of good cheer. The game of war is fluctuating — their
turn now, ours perhaps to-morrow.
And all night long I have waited and watched; the gray dawn
is now streaking the eastern sky. No warning shot from the picket guard, all is
still, all quiet, as though smiling peace still blessed the land. I have
written and paced the sentry's beat at intervals; now sounds the reveille\ The
stirring fife and prompt sharp sound of the drum break upon the morning air.
The camp is all aroused. My labor for the night is done. Its result a copy of
verses and not very interesting letter. It will bring proof, however, that I
have thought of you, that for the whole night at least you have been in my
thoughts till dawn.
I don't think that Cincinnati is in immediate danger from
Smith; he will probably retire. His mission was to watch Morgan at the
Cumberland Gap. It was so easy a thing to do, that he made his advance farther
than was intended. Bragg is the general to watch. He and Buell will, I think,
it is likely, have a big battle. If he is victorious, good-by, Cincinnati.
Anyhow I must think she is a doomed city.
SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of
Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 242-4
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