The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-07-25
A ScathtnG Letter from u Soldier
of the 4th Iowa Cavalry.
CAMP ON BEAR CREEK, Miss.
,yljy 9Th 1922

4
again attempt 10 address few Thoughts tc
them and the public generally, through
your popular and valuable paper. There
is enough news to fl your paper full, blu,
doubt not tho agents of steam and light
Ing will have carried it TO you, and it will
be published, read, aud partly forgotten
before this reaches you. So viii not at
tempt to write news.
1t is reiterated that the 4th cavalry ID
never heard from. These friends have no,
read the Home Journal which liz almost
tuli OF the doings and sayings Especially
the sayings) of the 4th. There are but q
few stragglers from Des Moines county in
our regiment, and this is the reason why
the Burlington papers care less about us
and we about them than other regiments
in which your vicinity is largely represen-
ted.
But our regiment has not been idle
Since we1eit Helena, on the Goth dny of A pril,
we have not lain in camp more than ten
days altogether. We have secuted and ex-
plored all the country for forty miles
around Vicksburg. We have been en-
gagged in great many skirmishes, some of
which would have been called battles a
year ago. In all of these we have lost AS
many men as any one of the regiments en-
gagged in the investment line of Vicksbur
excepting few; and we are satisfied we
have become generally known and respec-
ted by the rebels we have met in battle,
and whose smoke houses and bee hives we
have visited The Fourth boys are fond
of bam, honey and milk.
1.-The Fourth of July was a great day
with the army at Vicksburg OF course
we did not celebrate it with pic-nics, pa
rades, bonfires, and the roar of cannon
We had no chicks to '.pick." we have
paraded until we are tired; we have seen
houses, mills, and corn-pens burn until
bontires have lost their interest; and, as
for rockets and cannon thunder, we have
seen shells burst and heard cannon roar
until they have become as common as cock
growing. We made our celebration dinner
of hard crackers, coffee, and meat. But
the news that Vicksburg had fallen, that
thirty-two thousand prisoners had surren-
dered to our arms was enough to make us
glad, and we rejoiced as no other people
rejoiced on that glorious Fourth of July.
No sooner had the surrender of Vicks-
burg been agreed on than our army was
in motion toward Big Black river. We
have been oamped i'll advance of the army
OF defense for several days at this place.
We are three miles west OF Big Black and
twenty-five miles east of Vicksburg.-
Troops have been pouring past here since
II NJ. of the Fourth Of July like the floods
OF Springtime. All the troops on this road
expect to cross the river this afternoon.
We are going out to settle a little grudge
we have against 10 Johnson for bothering
our vldetts and scouts in our rear while we
were attending to NicksblIrg. And if he
does not get out of the way we will
punish him severely for his impudence
and impunity. Considerable firing is
kept up across Black river but what the
result is know not. 1t is not ''all quiet
on Big Black.
The prisoners we have taken are hearth
ly tired of the war and long for peace A
great many of the Missouri troops will re-
turn home, if permitted. I have talked
with great many. They all wish, ay,
vainly wish they could again have the Old
Union as 1t wds. But this can never, neUer
be. The great, free, loyal North after
spending so much blood and treasure will
never again consent to be a hitchng post
for domineering and insulting South to
chain her slaves to. We want no more
Fugitive Slave Laws in the North-we
want no more slaves in the South. The
graves Of more than three hundred thou
sand OF our brethren consecrate the sunny
plains of the South, and we who have not
yet fallen are determined that the
dull cold ear of death
shall never Jingle to the clank of chains,
or the slave drag his manacled limbs over
their graves. No! not ON this soil made
holy by their blood-above these graves no
race of slaves can live. A deep incision
has already been made around the cancer
that has been long nourshed in the heart
of our government-let the keen point of
the war knife cut deeper and still deeper
until that cancers deepest root is cut out.
The South was not satisfied with the Union
as 1T DdS, now let them have it as it is or
will be when slavery and rebels are eXter-
minated.
There are some good people in the South
deserving our sympathy. But the great
n No. .f,fr tt,,,t tt,,.
is coming upon them. When l look on the
desolation of this land and at the same
time think of the suffering and anguish
they have caused, / cannot helpsaying let
the iron wheel of justice and vengence roll
on. And want to see those enemies of
human liberties and human rights, the old
''F. Z. vs. of the Old Dominion, the
would be Lords and Earls and petty ty-
rants of the South, yes, / want to see these
men put between the upper and neither
millstones and ground to powder. They
have vlllhed the peace loving people of the
North and tried to make themselves and
those under their influence believe that we
were race OF towards, too contemptibly
mean to fight for our Government. In
short they have ''given themselves over to
believe "A lie that they might be damned
now let them be damned.
L am told that IL is a common thing for
CopperheadS to wear butternut breaStpins,
emblems of the treason, that rankles dark
ly in their hearts. This is at it should be.
Men ought always to show their mark.
The day will come when these men would
like to hide behind a butternut tree from
the presence of an honest loyal patriot.
Yes, the day will come when their child
rem would be glad if they could say
unto them, we never knew you. Let them
wear their badge. l would rather see my
fathers or my brothers bosom ornament
ed with his death wound, received on some
one Of our Country's battlefields, than with
that emblem of treason which the Northern
traitor wears.
If they become too troublesome, am in
favor of sendnga few regiments of negroes
to hang every ID of them. They are too
contemptibly mean to be hung by white
soldiers. Northern Trsitors-Bu tternuts-
CopperheadI When the translator OF the
Bible could not find word strong enough
to express the full meaning of the Greek
word Anathema, which means the severest
curse, he wrote down The original Anatbe-
ma. SO when the historian OF this war
seeks for word to express the character of
Northern Traitor, let him acknowledge
the deficiency of the language, dip his pen