DIY History | Transcribe | Civil War Diaries and Letters | Andrew F. Davis papers, 1862

Transcribe
Translate

02_1862-03-13-Page 02

verry large; consequently the houses are not so thick as in other parts where the land holders are not so extensive but where there are houses it has more the appearance of a Village than a farm house as evry one of them have from one to twenty Negro huts in the back ground.  The slave population is quite numerous, particularly the women and children; The men do not appear so numerous but I suppose that may be accounted for by the fact they they would be more likely to be enticed away by the army, therefore they are not permitted to make their appearance along the road, and I am told that a great many of them are run off by their masters and put out of sight for fear that they would be seized, but if all men ware like me there would not be any slaves interfered with, for this reason, that I think from what little observation I have had a chance to make, the Slaves of Tennisee are better off than 9 out of evry ten of the poor whites of our part of the country and in a better condition than 99 out of evry 100 of the free negroes of the north for this reason, that they all have far better quarters to live in than 2/3 of the tenament houses with us, and some of their houses are even sumptous, and they all appear to be well fed as they look hearty and fat and always in a good humor and are all comfortably clothed, but I may have only saw the bright side therefore I will drop the subject.  The location of our camp is beautiful, it is situated in a beutiful Sugar tree grove and there are several beautiful farms and nice residents immediately around it.  You asked what Division of the Army we are in.  We are in the 15 Brigade of the 6th division under command of Gen. Wood. Our Brigade consists of 4 Regiments namely, the 15th  & 17 Indiana, the 27th Ohio and the 13th Michigan and is commanded by Col Haskel of the 17th Ind.  You cannot go in any direction but what you come across camps of soldiers, and there are now in this immediate vicinity from Seventy five to One hundred Thousand men.  While we ware comeing here and while at Bowling Green we ware for 2 or 3 days on quite short rations owing to unavoidable delays in transportation, but since we have been here we are making up for it for provisions of evry kind are most abundant.  When Our forces first took possesion of the 

[Left Margin of the Letter:] 
Tell Mrs. Thompson that I do not know where to tell her to send the Hospital stores that they have on hand.  It is not worth while to send them to the Regt. as all the sick are sent to the general Hospitals.  Therefore they had better send them to some of the Sanitary Committees.  Homer Smith is Still in Louisville but I do not know in what Hospital.  One or two of Our Fountain County boys are at Munfordville and 2 at the Hospital in Nashville

Saving...

verry large; consequently the houses are not so thick as in other parts where the land holders are not so extensive but where there are houses it has more the appearance of a Village than a farm house as evry one of them have from one to twenty Negro huts in the back ground. The slave population is quite numerous, particularly the women and children; The men do not appear so numerous but I suppose that may be accounted for by the fact they they would be more likely to be enticed away by the army, therefore they are not permitted to make their appearance along the road, and I am told that a great many of them are run off by their masters and put out of sight for fear that they would be seized, but if all men ware like me there would not be any slaves interfered with, for this reason, that I think from what little observation I have had a chance to make, the Slaves of Tennisee are better off than 9 out of evry ten of the poor whites of our part of the country and in a better condition than 99 out of evry 100 of the free negroes of the north for this reason, that they all have far better quarters to live in than 2/3 of the tenament houses with us, and some of their houses are even sumptous, and they all appear to be well fed as they look hearty and fat and always in a good humor and are all comfortably clothed, but I may have only saw the bright side therefore I will drop the subject. The location of our camp is beautiful, it is situated in a beutiful Sugar tree grove and there are several beautiful farms and nice residents immediately around it. You asked what Division of the Army we are in. We are in the 15 Brigade of the 6th division under command of Gen. Wood. Our Brigade consists of 4 Regiments namely, the 15th & 17 Indiana, the 27th Ohio and the 13th Michigan and is commanded by Col Haskel of the 17th Ind. You cannot go in any direction but what you come across camps of soldiers, and there are now in this immediate vicinity from Seventy five to One hundred Thousand men. While we ware comeing here and while at Bowling Green we ware for 2 or 3 days on quite short rations owing to unavoidable delays in transportation, but since we have been here we are making up for it for provisions of evry kind are most abundant. When Our forces first took possesion of the [Left Margin of the Letter:] Tell Mrs. Thompson that I do not know where to tell her to send the Hospital stores that they have on hand. It is not worth while to send them to the Regt. as all the sick are sent to the general Hospitals. Therefore they had better send them to some of the Sanitary Committees. Homer Smith is Still in Louisville but I do not know in what Hospital. One or two of Our Fountain County boys are at Munfordville and 2 at the Hospital in Nashville