The Ohio Democrat. [volume] (Canal Dover, Ohio) 1840-1900, 1863-03-27
Letter rroim the sOth.


We are permitted to make the follow
ing extracts of a letter from the sOth,
now near Vicksburg:
"0ur camp is on plantation at Grand
Lake, twenty-five miles above Providence,
the owner of which lives in Nashville,
Tenn,s 1t was stocked with about $50
negroes, the most valuable of which have
been sent off to prevent them from being
taken as contrabands. Here I saw an
old negro who gave me much informa.
tion in regard to the country and other
matters of interest He is l04 years
old; was born in Africa and brought to
this country with his mother when a
child. He is rather intelligent for me-
gro, with a good set of iuory, walks
with cane, but is rather sprightly. He
gave me an account of the first soldiers
he ever saw, which was Corvallis army
in Virginia, when he was 10 years old.
Our camp is two feet lower than the wa
ter in the river; this may seem strange,
but it is nevertheless trae All the
plantations are protected by high levee
banks, and yet many of them are over.
flowed. The whole country is one vast
lake as far as the eye can reach, and
must say it is one of the finest watered
countries I was ever in.
On Tuesday evening we left Memphis,
and arrived at Grand Lake Wednesday
about O'Clock P. NJ, unloaded the
principal part of our camp equippage
and commiSsary stores. Pitched tents
on Thursday and remained in camp un
til Saturday morning, when we were or
dered to embark on the same boats We
came down on About noon our fee
was again on the move, bound up thu
river for Helena, Ark. where Ross di
vision now is, and McArthur's and Lo.
gan's will join us, making four divisions
in all. We shall look for Gen. Nc
PherSon, who commands this army corps
tomorrow or'next day.
The weather is warm and pleasant
peaches are in full bloom, and many o
the trees in the forests and along th,
river banks are green with foliage.
The Mississippi may well be called
the father of waters" for at this tim,
it is from one to three miles wide, ant
beyond its width it foods the whole coun
try. The country is productive of &c.
we're thunder storms, cane brakes anC
negroes.
The health Of the regiment is good
We have all had chance to see Dixie
no one desires to come here and rails
cotton. There isno sense in man talk
ing about coming down here to cultivat
the soil without the aid of slave labor
all are satisfied on that point. l hav
asked several ardent advocates of negr,
freedom,i in our regiment, atthey woult
do If they owned one of the large planta
tions, whether they would be in favor o
freeing the slaves or not, and not on,
but said it would be impossible to worl
them without slaves, that they supposed
the exigency of the case would advocate
that policy. No man can hesitate 70
moment that were the slaves here tt
be Sc. free, but what these plantation
would soon be filled with weeds and tree
and become wild wastes. The man VIII,
owned the plantation we encApped on
owned three, on which he had three hun
dred negroes. To raise the amount O
cotton and corn that he raised on then
would require at least one hundred whit,
families to work them, allowing thre,
laboring hands to family; then the,
would all die, they could not endure tn,
intense heat, nor the miasma from th
lakes and marshes. There is no use il
arguing this point, for God never in
tended that white men should cultivat
these lands SO long as wool could b
made to grow on darkey's head.
When l return l will give you a def
mite description of Dixie and its variet
pictures.
E. GOODRICH.