I have not received a letter from you since yours of the 4th inst.  I am getting quite impatient to hear from home.  I suppose that the P. O. department understand that we are at Vicksburg as our mail has gone below, I asked Charley Dewey to pass me by the guards this morning he did it verry cheerfully, indeed I ask favors only ocasionally & always have them granted.  I went out through the citty & had a verry fine walk.  It is a very fine situation, & well built.  I visited the Citty Park, & saw the statue of the Old hero of Orleans, on one side is the well known mottoe "The Federal Union it must & shall be preserved".  The Statue is in Marble & a splendid one.  Some wretch had tried to efface the words "Federal Union" But the stern visage of the old Hero is so lifelike that no matter how much is immortal words may be defaced it must be a thorn in the flesh of this rebellious people.  The soldiers
