Cairo. The
refreshments and drygoods from home arrived Saturday. We were at Paducah then
and they were taken care of by two or three of the lame and halt, that were not
in traveling order and were left behind. We returned this morning and after
acknowledging the excellence, profusion, variety, gorgeousness, and
confiscarity of your benevolent appropriation to our temporal wants, I will
particularize by saying that you needn't worry about your picture, as it is in
my possession; that the cakes are both numerous and excellent, that the pickles
are prodigious in quantity, beautiful in quality and remarkably acceptable.
That the butter and cheese are non ad com valorum. The tobacco and Hostetter,
the boys say, are very fine. To Mrs. Dewey and Mrs. Heald we all return thanks
and send our kind respects and love. We have sent a share of the eatables to
the Canton boys of the 17th, which is again encamped near us; this time on the
Kentucky shore. They are hard at work to-day cutting down trees, clearing away
for a camp ground. I have seen none of them yet. We had the nicest little trip
to Paducah, that ever soldiers had. We have just received orders to get ready
to start in five minutes.
Time extended a little. We had 1,500 troops in Paducah, Ky.,
and received information that they would be attacked Saturday, so Friday night
350 of us were sent up as an advance.—Now we go.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 27-8
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