On Board Steamer "armenia,"
Yazoo River, Near Haines's Bluff, June 15, 1863.
My Dear Wife:
I have just returned from the completion of my labors upon a
Court of Inquiry at Milliken's Bend. While there I witnessed and had to take
some part in a very bloody fight, in which three negro regiments repulsed a
largely superior force of the enemy. The conflict was desperate, hand to hand,
the blacks proving incontestably that they are brave. I suppose some account of
the affair will get into the newspapers.
The siege of Vicksburg progresses without material change
within the past few days. The bombardment is incessant; always we hear the
booming of heavy guns, not seldom the sharp rattle of musketry; our approaches
are constant; she must fall, perhaps in a week, perhaps not for months. Heavy
reinforcements from above have reached us; more are coming.
SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of
Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 304-5
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