To Mrs. Lyon.
Camp near Booneville, Miss., 25 miles south of Corinth, on Mobile & Ohio R. R., Sunday, June 8, 1862.— We are lying quietly here, encamped in a beautiful grove, on dry, clean land. Our regiment is in better health than almost any regiment near us, and yet we have a large number of sick men back in the hospitals. For myself, I seem to grow stronger and more healthy every day. The climate seems well adapted to my constitution. We have warm days usually, with cool, delicious nights. I sleep every night on the ground under a shelter of boughs, our tents not having yet reached us, with nothing but a rubber blanket under me, and I sleep soundly and sweetly. I do not think we shall move from here until the Mississippi river is open so that we can get our supplies by railroad from Memphis. We now have to haul them with teams from Hamburg, between forty and fifty miles distant. The Tennessee river will soon be so low that it will be difficult to get them to Hamburg.
I have no idea where Beauregard’s army is, but we have plenty of evidence that it is sadly demoralized. I do not expect any more hard fighting here, for I do not believe that the rebels will face us, but I may be mistaken. If McClellan takes Richmond, and the Mississippi is speedily opened, I shall confidently expect a speedy termination of this wicked rebellion. Then, our duty performed and our beloved country relieved from peril, with glad emotions will we return to the arms of our loved ones and to the sacred peace of our happy homes. God speed the joyful hour!
I have now been in two fierce battles and have faced death for long, weary hours, and amid the wild terrors of the contest have been enabled by our kind Heavenly Father to preserve my self-command and do my duty. Oh, how sublime a scene is a battle! I can not describe it, but it seemed like the thunder on Sinai or the day of judgment, as our imaginations picture those wonderful events. Aside from its fearful perils, a battle fills the soul with the most sublime emotions. Then life is regarded at its true value, and the obligations of honor, patriotism, duty and humble trust in God fire the soul to meet manfully the terrible responsibilities of the hour. I thank God most devoutly that I have been enabled to render some service to my country, and that thus far our sweet babes will never have occasion to blush at the thought that their father failed to do his duty. The conviction that I shall return to you in safety at the end of the war keeps my feelings constantly calm and happy, and I sincerely hope that you feel so. I am well satisfied that I did not accept the promotion to the 18th, for I feel justifiable pride in the renown which our regiment has achieved. I feel now very clearly that it is my duty to keep with my company. The devotion of my men to me, evidenced in a thousand ways, often brings tears to my eyes.
I am vexed with the newspapers. Some of them are dissatisfied because we did not fight a great battle and, of course, have a great slaughter; and they call the whole operation a defeat. This is frightfully, cruelly wicked. These men are in a rage because ten thousand more homes are not desolated. The fact is, the whole campaign has been conducted with the most consummate generalship. Corinth is a most important position in a military point of view, flanking both Fort Pillow and Memphis. We wanted the position. The rebels themselves, with their arms and supplies, were of but little consequence to us. We won the position with but little loss of life, and these cowardly home-guards gnash their teeth in impotent rage because no more of us were butchered.
