Headquarters First Brigade,
Fourth Div., Seventeenth Army Corps,
Department Of The Tennessee,
"Camp Kilby" in The Field, Dec. 22, 1863.
I am glad to learn
that you are all living comfortably and contented. You none of you have the
most remote idea of the horrors of war, or the desolation and despair that is
left in the track of large armies. I have known women whose husbands and
brothers, and sons, have been forcibly conscripted, torn away from them at
midnight by the rebels, left without food, fire, or clothes, sometimes sick in
bed. I have known others who, two years ago, were of the most opulent in the
land, who counted their yearly incomes by the hundreds of thousands, begging
for food from our commissary. I don't know how it may be at the North. I am
told by those who have returned from visits home, that the people they have met
are callous and careless, and ignorant of the state of affairs here. This war
has had its origin in lawless and malignant passion, and is the severest
calamity with which this land could be visited. Seas, rivers, and harbors are
blocked up, cities are depopulated, fertile regions are condemned to eternal
desolation. Mourning, tears, anguish, misery, in its worst form, is the lot of
a vast number of our people. Those who have immunity are blessed, and should be
grateful to God. I imagine, that, aside from the evanescent sensation that a
vivid description of a battle-scene gives, few think of the soldier in the
field, or of those who sorrow for him dead. Part of the country is dripping
with the blood of heroes slain, part is given up to feasting and revelry, at
Washington the glory of Babylon has come again.
SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of
Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 345-6
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