4 
Good morning My Dear Wife:  this is such a bright, clear & pleasant morning, hardly a cloud in the sky, the pure air is moving in zepher breezes, bearing on its soft wings the fragrance of a great variety of flowers - But the desolation that surrounds me is sickening.  I am told by men who have passed over the road from Millikens to the place since we came through that the country is laid in ruins, great fine mansions, richly furnished some & almost all furnish with the best, Piano Fortes, & many other costly fixtures - all consumed by fire.  "The Cotton gin" a large building with usually about four gins run by steam power with all the machinery for packing & bailing cotton - costing thousands of dollars, men passing by coolly walk in & set it all on fire, last Saturday there was one burned in sight of us - what a fire!  The people of the south are so completely at the mercy of the soldiry, that it is alarming to contemplate the consequences, were it not that our army is made up from a humane people the consequences might be appalling - as it is the rights of women are scrupulously respected, (there has been some awful exceptions not however by Americans) There has been heavy canonading all the morning at Vicksburg, it makes the earth fairly tremble even at this distance (about 20 miles) Their wilful stubbornness in not giving up when they are so badly beaten will cause the ruin of their country more complete, as it keep our our armies scattered over more teratory.  This beautiful & rich country would not have been molested had they given up
