Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Div.,
Fifteenth A. C,
Young's Point, La., April 19, 1863.
My Dear Wife:
The weather here is cool and delightfully pleasant. The climate
of Louisiana is much misunderstood at the North. The nights are cool enough now
for two or three blankets; mornings and evenings fresh; sun rather oppressive
in the middle of the day. We have flies, but no mosquitoes yet, where my camp
is pitched. I apprehend great trouble from them hereafter, though, and have no
bar. One of my officers on detached service, within a few miles, reports to me
that he has eaten alligator steak and chowder, and that yesterday they killed
one that measured nine feet. He reports also bear and deer and other wild game.
The woods here now are vividly green, vocal with song of birds, and all flowers
are blooming. I saw a handful of ripe strawberries that were gathered more than
a week ago.
Most plantations within reach of us are despoiled, so that
no fruits or vegetables can be had; we see ruins and hear of what might have
been. A blessed paradise being turned into a howling wilderness.
SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of
Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 288-9
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