Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-12-16
IN CAMP AND FIELD.
A MEDICAL MANS MEMORY
 OF WARTIME

QUARLE's BRIGADE ARMY TENNESSEE.
 This letter has now been in the writer's possession almost twenty-one years. He has read it many times, and always with renewed interest, and it has never failed to bring before his mind an all-pervading sense ofwhat might hdUe been," |" had it not miscarried and fallen into the hands of o Yankee instead of the fair one intended.
 The letter was in great heap with many others, and like all the rest had been removed from it's envelope, so that it was impossible to ascertain the name of the young lady addressed. It was written on blue-tinted paper of unusual good quality for Confederate manufactures; the hand writing good, and indeed the whole make up of the letter was just of the kind most likely to impress the mind of a young lady. Had it reached it's destination an interest ing correspondence would certainly have followed, and very likely a love affair, and perhaps an e eSSi cement and marriage. May be, however, XcCauly came to Mobile, was there during the sicge, firing at the in- vaders, and when off duty calling upon his ''unknown friend" And may be he fell at Spanish Fort or Blalkely in defense of his native Alabama.
 Such letter as he writes is calculated to set in operation a thousand conjectures, and then it has the ring of the true soldier with-as is usual with brave men-an entire absence of bitter epithets for his enemies
 In 0 different vein is the following, found at the same time and yet in the writer's possession:
 TALLAHASSEE LANDING, Dec. 90 c64.) My Dearly Beloved Mother: What in this wide world is the matter with you all that never hear from any of youf Have the Yankees forbidden your writ ing, and won't they allow your letters free pas sage to Mobilef Just four years ago we arrived home and were together. How many events have transpired since that time. For four years has desolating war been waged upon our land, and oh, how many have met their fate, and fear many more will have to sacri- flee their lives before the end of the struggle for independence. I suppose ere this you have heard of the battle of Franklin, Tenn, which was fought two or three weeks ago. It must have been an awful fight. Our soldiers charged their line of breastworks and succeeded in cap turing CD them. It was 0 great slaughter and almost drawn battle. We cla m victory, but lost from five to eight thousand men. Oh! how many of our brave, true soldiers sacrificed their lives on their country's altar that dayl How many fond hopes and anticpations and loved ones met their doom, and now lie buried in the co.a soil of Tennessee! Is it not awful to think off
 And when those they loved, on in distant States, hear of their deaths how sad their hearts will bel We lost several good Generals whose places can hardly be filled. The Fifteenth Mississippi went into the fight with two hundred and twenty men and lost seventy.
 
 men; it is said the loss of line and field officers was great.
 Iheard from Cousin Bob not long since He was well and in fine spirits; he said they got but very little to eat, that they would kill hog and never clean the hair oI and they would get their ratiOns of meat with the hair on and cook it on stick. He would make his bread on his oil cloth and bake it on Q fence rail. He has been in several fl lShts since heard from him. We'll, mother, the Yankees have been pretty close to us. They have been up on the railroad as far as Pollard; they destroyed the track for some distance and then left. There was about four hundred white men and five hundred negroes. Governor Watts has called out the militia to drive them back. Yankee General Sherman has evacuated Atlanta and gone in the interior of the State; ho has been to Miledgeville and several other towns. No one can imagine what he intends doing; the papers say that he is soon to be surrounded and captured. Ihope so, but fear he is too wide awake to be caught in trap. The mean old wretch wish he would be caught and hung to tho first limb. Ohl that was a man; would be willing to sacrifice every thing on earth and 20 and fight for my country. daily wish that was 6 man. How wish could see you all and be happy once again on earth. Do you hear from grandma oftenP How does she and Aunt Vicky get along with the YankeesH Where is Howard now-in the armyH Give my love to aunty and the girls. How is Mrs. Julia Murphy My love to her. suppose you would like to hear something of the family.
 
 soon be large enough to go to school. Hall is SO much like our family in every respect; he is Q smart, sweet child and so are all the rest How do you expect to spend your Christmasf hope pleasantly. expect to see no pleasure at alL It will be 0 very dull one here. Dear mother, do write often to me, and make Beckie write, too, and tell me every thing concerning you all. Twill close for this time. l will look nnxiously for 0 letter from you. Goodbye, dear mother; believe mo your lov- ing child, VICTORIA NIXON. On ono margin of the letter was written the following: "Don't never send another letter to M-k, as they generally open them all at that offlco. Send them herc- after to Lowndes-now, be certain to do ii. 7" This letter is written in close hand, upon yellow paper, letter size, of better quality than most of the Confederate man. ufa cture.
 Like McCauley's letter, it has been in the writer's possession twenty-one years, and the young Nixons, then below school age. arc now, if alive, mature men and women; and Hall, good looking and smart like his mothers people, is approaching middle age. Aye, the baby boy that may be | pulled at his mammals dress skirts while | she was unloading her heart to her moth | CT, and wishing she were a man that she might do battle for her beloved South, and saying bitter things of our gallant Sher- man-her baby boy of twenty-one years | AKO N0Fy IhOly Juot Cdu10 OA dSS III LlLlG to cast his first vote for Cleveland in 1884 And his mamma, if living, notices some | gray hairs in her head, and some of the | marks of time upon her face as she turns | to the glass. And what about 'yoN GL''- | that phrase so common in the South. t'Beckie," most likely, long since mar ried and is now the mother of large brood | of children that look like our tdnItLy. Good
 Mrs. Julia Murphy is probably Q nice, fat | old lady, who remembers all about the war | and the timo of "the surrender"
 But Mrs. Victoria Nixon has probably
 attended two funerals in the past twenty | one years, one not a great while after the war closed, when grandma died and was
 buried at the old family burying ground
 under the great ive-oak; and the other 6
 short time ago, when the ''dearly beloved mother'' was laid beside the husband that
 died many years before and left behind 6 | widow and @ number of children. But | Aunt "Viclzy" comes over on visit some
 times, and while old and iptirm has mem.
 ory that's wonderfully tenacious in recall
 ing old things, especially the many good