Year: 1863




FRIEND Bliss :-Several little incidents
having occurred hers the last few days
that both amused me and attracted nv
attention, i have concluded t. tick down
the substance Of them and send to you
thinking it might be of some interest to
YOU to know how the 34th Wis, infantry
is gettil along with its enemies, friends
&c, in general The first thing wish to
speak of is the misrepresentation that
are going the rounds in the Wisconsin pa
pers in relation to our Regt. Some of the
stories are, that our regiment is not drill
ed not disciplined and that it is demor-
allied, and such like To this | would
reply we are as well drilled as the nature
of the case would permit, and that IN my
opinion there is not better disciplined
regiment in the service than ours. The
men, officer and all, are always on hand
and promptly up to the scratch As to
being demoralized, | know to a certainty
that the Reg't is sound on the goose to
the last man and officer, and that every
one. without exceptions, Is ready to do his
duty | have the chance To know, and
do know too, that what | say Is the fact.


To speak OF our line officers, OF course
every man has his fisihngS, and go have
some of them, but to take them in gene
6f:tf IHeF are Il HGSt Tt.lc cct Oi ui''is am
| wish to say right here that James N.
Ruby, Capt of Co. b, is as good a man as
ever commanded Company in this Army
or any other, and as good a patriot as ever
lived A. to our Col | am inclined to
Ike the man, he is not eloquent in the
English language which IS some dIsadvan-
tage to him, but he C n he p that; he ts
a strict discipiinarian and that Is just
what we need If we had a few more
such men In our army it would be better
for the government. There are some OF
the BOYS here belonging to tn 9Th lndi-
ana Battery that were under our Col. when
he was chief of ARTILLERY in Mcclellan
staff in Virginia, and they all agree that
he was the best man they ever was under
before or since, and they all say that he
is as fearless and bold as lion But
Col Messmore and our Col. don't seem
to get along well together. Col Messmore,
for some unknown reason to me seems to
be down on our reg t. IN general


As you may wish to know something
about the force that is here at this time, |
will say that 3 companies OF the bloody
oath mum oering about 400 men, the 3lst,
mum bering about 500. tAe 9th and 25th
Wis, each numbering about 500, the 4th
Missouri Cavalry. numbering about 600,
Co. of the I'd Illinois Cavalry about 90
stronw, part of Cos of the Regular Cav
airy, and . Cos of the 10th Regular In
fantry, numbering in all, suppose, about
$50 men, making sum total of about
three thousand hundred men, a pretty
strong SAWYER for the rebels to run against,
fortified as we are. As to quarters, all
the troops here are in tents except the
Regulars and we lucky bloody 34th who
have good comfortable log barracks that
can't be beat in the ARMY


Our grub when we first came here was
very poor owing to our Commlssarv not
being up to the ropes, but now we have
plenty, and that which is good.


You will see from the War Eagle that
| sent you day cr two since that there
has been al order issued prohibiting the
sale of whisksv or beer to the soldiers at
this place, and better order for the ben
eft of The soldiers in general WAS never
issued Before, they could get just what
they wanted, and the consequence was,
that many 81 them had black eyes, ,lOody
noses, were In the guard house quite Of
ten &c This morning there were five
six negro refugees from the Missouri side
came to the river, and while attempting to
cross. a man on horseback rode up and
discharged his gun among them woundIng
one OF the negroes IN the shoulder, and
then ganoped of. Two companies of cav
airy were sent across the river in pursuit
Immediately. As they have not yet re-
tdrned, know nothing of what success
they have had in their chase Supernn-
merarv there are many other things 4
could tell YOU but as ! have already writ
ten at considerable length and probably
getting tedious, | win close by saying tkat
the hea lth Of the troops here is exceeding
" good, considering camp life. and they
are all in fine spirits and ready to meet
the rebels a, moments warning We
have no news from Vicksburg for several
DAYS The mails are very irregular here,
AMI it Ia seldom se see any very late pa
pers and we have no other means of get
ting the news The weather is fine, the
roads dry and nice.


"FREE-THINkE