22 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



BATON ROUGE, Feb., 22, 1863. 



BELOVED IN ISRAEL, Again (thou art owing me an 

 epistle) have I taken up my pen, this time to request thee 

 to forward the enclosed to Calvin Stebbins. I hate, Dick, 

 to have to send my letters franked as soldier's letters, but 

 nary a stamp have I and nary a one can I buy on these 

 benighted shores. 



I have just been drilling my men in a sad duty in re- 

 versed arms and rest, a duty which we are having to per- 

 form quite often nowadays. It is sad to see men stricken 

 down in their strength by the fever; one by one they drop 

 off, many of them without ever having had a sight of the 

 enemy poor fellows ! It is a sickening sight to go over 

 the hospitals and see the parched and wasted sufferers, 

 many of them stretched on the floor with only a blanket 

 and scarce a comfort or luxury of any kind. 



Mortar and gun-boats are daily arriving at this port. 

 We have six of the former and four or five of the latter. 

 They are continually making reconnaissance up the river 

 and occasionally give Port Hudson a touch of their balls, 

 but most of them give her a wide berth. Oh, Dick, you ought 

 to see us on our brigade drills! Such brilliant bayonet 

 charges as we perform ! Your uncle whooping and yelling 

 and waving his sword, men howling like so many Indians 

 and tearing over the ground as if the old scratch were 

 after them. It is exciting in the extreme, and it is just 

 about as much as I can do to hold in from dashing ahead 

 and cutting up my didoes. I verily believe that on a real 

 charge, whatever else my feelings, I shall hold my own with 

 the swiftest of them. Can't help it! It is so exciting! My 

 blood gets regularly up in the seventh Heaven and I chafe 



