Tuesday Oct 27" 3 P.M.  My Dear wife - I had intended to have written to you from Vicksburg, but we will not be likely to stop long - so I will merely say a few words & write on the way to Orleans.  We are a few miles only above Millikin Bend - I am almost in sight of the fields of bloody strife & terrible carnage in which I took an active part - O what memories cluster around these fields of conflict - "Vicksburg" That word has a terible meaning to the soldier - there the blood of the patriot & traitor are mingling with mother
