Colonel Lyon’s Letters.
Sept. 11, 1864.—I will write again from force of habit, for the cars do not yet run to Nashville and two letters that I have written to you still lie in the postoffice at this place. We learn that the railroads are nearly repaired. General Granger has not yet returned to Huntsville, and I am tied up here until he does return; then I propose to make an inspection tour to Stevenson and back, and an expedition southeast towards Claysville, to clear the country of guerillas.
Quite a number of the men are sick with chills and fever, caused by malaria. Captain Norcross and Dr. Horton went to Nashville just before the raid and have not been able to get back. I have sent Captain Kingman to Whitesburg with a detachment of seventy-five men taken from all of the companies. It is a sickly hole and I intend to change the men there as often as once a week. Company C, with the band and a lot of convalescents, is still at Claysville Landing. I have not heard from them for several days. I have no fears for their safety. They are strongly fortified and the gunboats are frequently there.
I told you in my last of an attack made on Company F. It was a mistake. The attack was made on a company of home guards, about a mile from the train— one killed and one wounded on each side, and ten of the guards (who are loyal men) captured. They were surprised by guerrillas.
It is a paradise here, where the rude hand of war has not desolated it. Huntsville is a beautiful town. Before the war there was much wealth in it, and it was the pride of the South. The city has not been torn up much, but the country about is devastated.
General Granger, I hear, is expected tonight.
