Camp On Pearl River, Ten Miles S. W. Of
Canton, Mississippi, February 27, 1864.
My Dear Wife:
I have opportunity to send a single line to assure you that
I am safe and well. A glance at the map of Mississippi will give you our line
of march and present location. The railway is marked from Vicksburg due east
through Warren, Hinds, Rankin, Scott, Newton, Lauderdale, and Clark Counties,
to the extreme western border of the State. My command has been to Enterprise
and Quitman. I am now on Pearl River in Madison County, near Madisonville, within
about seventy (70) miles of Vicksburg. Fire, havoc, desolation, and ruin have
marked our course. The blow has been terrible, crushing. The enemy have fled
before us like frightened deer. The whole railway system of the State is broken
up. The railway I have indicated shows our pathway through the State. We have
not yet heard from our cavalry.
My health is excellent, my horses have stood the journey
well and the troops of my command are all well and in fine spirits. To-day is
the twenty-seventh of the march; we have covered some three hundred and fifty
miles.
SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of
Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 354-5
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