130th Illinois Infantry

Item LTR-6650

Description

Original Civil War soldier's letter. 2 pages written in period ink.


New Iberia, La
November 10, 1863

Dear Sister,

Yours of the 10th inst. came to hand about a week ago and ought to have been answered sooner but I could not get a chance any sooner as we have been to the front. I commenced writing out there but the alarm was given when I was about half through and I had to leave it and see to loading the weapons and after that we were on the march all the time until day before yesterday. And the first two or three days a regiment is in camp, there is no use for a quartermaster to try and do anything else but feed the regiment.

We started from this place to the front on the 4th, marched to Vermillion Bayou ( the place where the main part of the army is stationed ). We found out then that our division was about 12 miles in the advance at Carrion Crow Bayou and that they had had a fight the day before. So we started on the morning of the 5th to join them but when we got about halfway, we was ordered to wait until they came back. So we just stacked arms and mad ourselves comfortable until they made their appearance which was in about three hours. We then fell in and went back to Vermillion and stayed there until the 7th when we started back. But in the meantime, we had bad various scares, alarms, etc., but no fight. We got back to this place on the eighth, all safe and sound. Having marched in all about sixty miles in 2 days. It rained all the time. We had a grand old time. One day we loaded and unloaded our wagons 3 times in one day. Struck tents and everything.

Our division (or rather the First Brigade and our regiment) now occupy this place. We are fortifying and will soon be so we can withstand a pretty large force. They are expecting an attack here all the time. Some of our boys were driven in today that was out foraging. About forty Rebel cavalry got after them and run them to within two miles of camp. But they got off safe.

This is the pleasantest place I have been in the South. I have become acquainted with most of the people in town. A great many young ladies among them and they all play the piano. So you may be sure I have a good time. The family I am most intimate at is a widow by the name of Hendrick. She has two daughters: Mollie and Francine. Mrs. Hendrick’s name before she was married was Phillips and she heard of me and seen me at church and thought I was some relation. So she sent word to me to come and see her, so I went but could not scrape up any relation. She said she would give anything to find a relation. She said she believed she was my aunt. Any how, I looked so much like her brother, so I call her Aunt Julia and the girls, Cousin Mary and Francine and they call me Cousin Fielding. They are the most Christian–like folks I have seen in the South and the best Union folks. They want to go to Illinois.

Well, I have been writing along and don’t expect I have written anything worth reading either. They have been talking to me and bothering me so much I can hardly do anything.

We had a little frost last night, the first we have had, but the weather is very warm yet in the middle of the day. The trees are green and roses and other flowers are in full bloom. I wish you could be down here about a week and see what the Sunny South is and hear some of the ladies sing their secech songs such as the Southern Girls’ Bonnie Blue Flag, Maryland my Maryland, Missouri, etc. It would make you mad until you got use to it. I have some big arguments with them and tell them just exactly what I think.

Well, my sheet is almost full and my supper is ready, so I will stop for the present. This is enough to let you know that I am alive and well as I always am. You need not be afraid of me being sick. I think I am very near proof against it. Give my love to all and remember me as ever your brother,

Fielding Phillips