Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Jackson, Tenn.,
February 25, 1863.
I guess it's full two weeks since I wrote you last,
excepting a half sheet a few days ago. My reason is that it has been raining
ever since, and my tent leaks so that (that's rather a larger story than I
think you'll swallow, so I'll not spoil paper by finishing it); but, Scotland,
how it does rain here. Commences slowly and gently, comes straight down and
continues coming for about 24 hours in the same manner. Mercury at about 35
degrees. Then the wind will commence blowing, cool, cooler, cold. Stop the
rain, scatter the clouds, and getting warm again will, in a day or so, gather
the moisture from the surface, and probably give us one pleasant day, rarely
more. It seems to me there has not been a day this winter when the sun shone,
and the air was calm, that I needed a fire, and I remember but one day during
which the mercury sunk as low as 10 degrees. We had two nice “falls” of snow,
but they found they'd lit in the wrong country and evacuated in quick time. It
can't snow here to much advantage, but I am sure the rest of the world could
learn from this region on the rain question. Canton is a parlor compared to
this town. Part of the town is on rolling ground, but the hillside seems even
muddier than the valleys. This town is thrice the size of Canton, and has ten
times as many costly dwellings, but the sidewalks and streets will not compare
with yours. The arrangements of gardens is passable and much taste is shown in
the distribution of evergreens. One gentleman living between our camp and town
has 10,000 pines, hollies, cedars, etc., in the grounds surrounding his house.
The grounds comprise maybe fifteen acres. I mean he had 10,000 trees, but the
Yankees burned the fences around his paradise, and have in various ways managed
to destroy a few thousand evergreens A kind of a parody, you understand, on
that Bible story of the devil in Eden. Colonel Kellogg is here to-night, but
goes to Memphis to-morrow where he will join Colonel Babcock. They may both be
here again within a week, but it is not certain. He says we may be thankful we
are not in the Yazoo Swamp or at Vicksburg, but two months heavy picketing here
have rendered me unable to see it in that light. Our pickets have been fired on
twice during the last two days. Nobody hurt, I believe. We have news to-night
of General Dodge, of Corinth, capturing some 200 prisoners and a train of
wagons at Tuscumbia, Ala. How I do wish we could be sent into that country
again. It's worth all the rest of the South that I have seen.. I have 11
negroes in my company now. They do every particle of the dirty work. Two women
among them do the washing for the company. Three babies in the lot, all of
which have run barefooted all the winter, and though they have also run at the
nose, etc., some, seem to be healthy all the time.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 157-8
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