Oneonta Herald, Oneonta, NY, June 11, 1862
Civil War Soldier's Letter
Lexington, Mo., May 30th, 1862
Dear Herald: Although I have headed my letter "Lexington," yet, in reality, I am on board the steamboat Sioux City, from Fort Leavenworth to St. louis, and probably to Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, and now taking on coal at the place indicated in the date of my letter.
When I wrote you last, I was on my way to New Mexico. Our forces were being concentrated at Fort Riley, and everything seemed to bid fair for a pleasant though unnecessary journey across the plains. Immense quantities of provisions, clothing and other stores were provided. Nothing was spared to render the expedition effective and their equipment complete. Our forces consisted of 3500 men, exclusive of artillery. We had a train of 500 wagons, 3000 mules, and about thirty ambulances.
On Saturday, May 17th, all arrangements were completed and orders issued. The Kansas troops were to march on Monday, the Wisconsin troops were to follow on Tuesday. On Sunday at 9 A.M. a courier arrived with orders, which, on being opened, countermanded our previous orders and directed us to report at once at St. Louis. So, on the following Monday and Tuesday, the various regiments, with the exception of the Kansas 2d, began their countermarch down the valley of the Kaw, in the order above indicated, instead of across the plains. We had a pleasant time on our march to Leavenworth. The distance is one hundred and thirty-five miles. The first seventy-five miles lay down the valley of the Kaw, by the same road which we travelled from Lawrence to Fort Riley. If this valley was beautiful when first we saw it in early spring, while yet bare and brown, it is now lovely beyond description when the first fresh verdure covers every rough hillside and a wealth of foliage hides every gnarled and blasted branch in the forest.
At Indianola, near Topeka, we left the valley and took our way over the rolling prairie. Here, again, new beauties met our eyes. Openings appeared here and there on the swells, and groves in all the hollows. Little streams were numerous, each with its belt of timber enriching the landscape. All the way you might have heard us exclaiming, "Beautiful," "Lovely," I never saw the like of this before.
As I remarked before, we started on Tuesday, May 19th, and on the following Sabbath we reached Easton, on the Big Stranger River, fourteen miles from Leavenworth. Nothing of interest occurred on the march, save one day when the Wisconsin 13th attempted to race with us, and we beat them just fourteen miles, making thirty-five miles on a very warm day, and carrying our guns and accoutrements. Such a march, for the fun of the thing, I do not think was ever made before. by this days' march we overtook the troops who left Fort Riley one day in advance of us. On Monday the whole brigade advanced three miles and encamped eight miles from Fort Leavenworth. The following day we were ordered to the Fort. We marched down in the afternoon and encamped on the Government reserve. That is a charming spot. From a fortified bluff commanding the fort, you have a view of large fields, each enclosing hundreds of acres, and covered with clover and red top just now in blossom; green lawns, here a grove carefully trimmed, there an impenetrable thicket, cottages half hidden among the trees, the distant city, the fort which is a city of itself, and the many camps with white tents, and a gentle slope now just seen over the crest of some rising ground, pressing outward, or lifting their white forms on the uplands far away to the city.
The following morning, our brigade was reviewed by Gen. Blunt, commandant of the Department of Kansas; preparations meanwhile going on for our departure. the 1st, 7th and 8th Kansas, left that day. The next morning, the remainder of the brigade, consisting of the 12th and 13th Wisconsin, 2d Kansas and 8th Wisconsin batteries, embarked on four boats and together steamed away down the Big Muddy, amid the roar of cannon, the shouts of the multitude and the stiring notes of music on boat and shore.
Thus, ended our experience in Kansas. If I were called upon to give a name to the military operations in that state, I would call it the expedition of the Kansas Relief Committee. Troops have been scattered in every direction and everywhere the people seemed resolved to make all they could out of them. Said one man who had been in our camp selling sour milk and other slop: "Sending soldiers out here has been a good thing. It has done us a great deal of good. We've made sixty dollars out of the little we have sold." People would come into camp and sell milk to the soldiers for a dime a quart, which proved to be skimmed and sour at that. It is no wonder that the boys resumed their old habits of jayhawking, though it is to be regretted that they did so.
June 3d, near Caire, Ill. - We had a pleasant trip down the river to St. Louis. We ran during the day and tied up at night, for the river, though now very high, is full of sand bars and snags, which make navigation dangerous. We saw many manifestations of loyalty all along the river; many of these were no doubt genuine, but of many of them I could but call to mind the old song.
"When the devil was sick, the devil a monk would be / When the devil got well, a devil of a monk was he."
The scenery along the river for the first half of the trip is monotonous, low bottoms covered with cotton wood being nearly all that is to be seen. From Ginsgow to the mouth of the river, bluffs are constantly in sight, now sloping and cultivated like our eastern hill sides and again forming for miles a perpendicular wall of rock sixty to seventy feet in height.
Business is everywhere at a standstill. The towns are lonely and the levees deserted. The prosperity of Missouri for the present is destroyed.
We arrived at St. Louis on Sunday about noon and anchored at Bloody Island, yesterday (Monday), we took on supplies, toward evening we steamed up and were off to the wars again. Laurens
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