To Mrs. Lyon
Cairo, Wednesday p. m., Jan. 22, 1862.—The boys are all in good health and spirits. The mud has dried up so that it is comfortable getting about on foot. A steamer that passed Sulphur Springs the next evening after you left there, with a regiment, the 55th Illinois, on board, has just arrived here. Wouldn’t we have had a nice time had we got off on a steamboat?
We are very well situated. The boys have fixed up the barracks (each company has a building by itself) so that they are very comfortable. Our quarters at one end are almost as good as a parlor. We have three coal stoves, one in the quarters and two in the barracks, and have no difficulty in keeping dry and warm.
We are gratified with the victory at Somerset, Ky., over Zollicoffer. It shows how western men fight. We shall whip them every time we meet them on anything like equal terms—up west here. Deserters from below say that the rebels fear and dread the Northwestern troops. When the grand expedition starts down the Mississippi the blows will fall thick and fast and most effectually on secession.
