The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-07-07
HEADQ'Rs 1sr DIV. ARA A. Q. /

OoEsERT PLANTATION, La, June 26.
DEAR LEADER:-If one could live on
board a steamer, thus removed to s re-
specGful distance from bayous, water,
marshes, slligators, mosquitoes, gallinip-
pers, and ten thousand other tormentors,
creating q breeze Of his own by perpetual
motion, and have a plentiful supply Of ice,
Louisiana would be endursble as q residence.
1 have tried the shore t~wenty-four hours,
and am fully convinced, from my expert
ence, that as many more ought to entitle
me to q nations gratitude and a pension
for life.
Five years ago the plsntstion wherein
we are encamped wss classic ground; but
the stars of the past pale before the bril-
liant comets of the present. Here it was
that Andrew Jackson won the Presidency
by defeating, at 8 loss not exceeding one
fifth that of any regiment composing the
4th Corps on many g field, the forces Of
General Packenhsm.
Il, A "highly intelligent and reliable con-
traband" designates the very spot, under
a live oak, not two hundred yards irommy
tent where the r~edoubtsble Generals
bowels were inferred. You know the
story goes,-it may be historical for ought
l know. That his corpus was em6slmed
in q barrel of whisky, shipped, and thstthe
sailors, getting wind of the mOdtEs, secretly
tapped the General and +" walked" him, per
SC, al the way TO the British channel.
Thirteen hundred miles of water having
been passed over in one week, the corps IS
encsmped on the told battle ground"
some seven miles below the Crescent City.
Indications are that ere many days 1t Will
: be Transported to the Rio Gtande as an
a army of observation. Can it be that after
|, waiting and watching over the border for q
. favorable opportunity, we shall cross the
Rubicon2 We don't know.
The boys are revealing in green corDI
bananas, oranges, apples. River water, with
!, out ice, bears about the SAINT relation to q
g palatable beverage that q su~persnnusted
9 maiden lady does to q blooming matrOn.
Surgeons are IN great demand just now
but a little seclimsting experience will les
sen their business shortly. Inconsistencies
l. which may, with all due respect to Burns
n be termed the Ghell O. all diseases" mixed
with equal psrts Of bad water, commissary
It whisky, strange fruits and cowsrdice, cost
l the government many q grain of calome
y and q%uinine.
Is A large portion of the bosts met in de
n scending the Mississippi were iron GISus
going North to be paustered out. VIVA
snrnTised mo most was the unwieldly sp
nesrsnce Of the most noted ~gUnbOats. Tn
- Benton, for q long time flag ship OF In
10 feet, could not make headwsy against III
a current, but was towed by 8 much smalle
~ beat. So all these huge monsters Wer
N convoyed up the river. It was the Oh
"a story of Sampson and Delilsh. In a pom
AT these ponderous engines might. make steer
n age way, but they are byno means sthom
20 ~aang the rapid currents and eddles
of our Western IiTezz- This acme Of gunbOa
be building is not yet attained.
II. Said an old pilot to me, while the Ber
toR was passing, 81 wouldn't run her up I
, Cairo for less thsn twenty-five dollars
u day then I'd run her tour days, Ion
Us enough to q my passage on q pscke
ny and desert" Against the monitors Il
ST. SAINT objection cannot be urged a
~ floating batteries these river %gunbosts al
III excellent, little more.
re- A cloud of mosquitoes around my hes,
OIL and the imprecstions of a soldier upon
30, daring reptile which has just run throug
* his tent, whose head the seed Of woms
shall bruise,-but didn't in this instance
remindme that it is time TO exIiDguish N
ne luminRry. j. b. d..