Thursday, March 27, 2014

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, May 15, 1862

HEADQUARTERS 54TH REGT. O. V. INF.,
CAMP NO. 6 IN THE FIELD,
MISSISSIPPI, May 15, 1862.

We are still advancing, counter-skirmishing, and the din of cannonading is by day and night. We are close to Corinth. A great and decisive battle must soon be fought. We have been brigaded a second time. My regiment is now under command of Brigadier-General Morgan L. Smith, and consists of four regiments, the 55th Illinois, Colonel Stuart; the 57th Ohio, under Lieutenant-Colonel Rice, the Colonel being absent on sick leave; the 8th Missouri, and the 54th Ohio. I still preserve my position on the left flank, which gives me my position on the extreme left of the brigade, and as we march by the left flank, the advance of the army, which is a post of honor. The integrity and courage of my command is undoubted, and therefore the responsible trust. My address will now be 54th Regiment, Ohio Volunteers, First Brigade, Fifth Division, Major-General Sherman commanding.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 204

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