"No 76"
  Camp of 23d Iowa Vol Inft
  Near Mobile Ala May 11th 1865  
My Dear Wife:  I am writing today under the shadow of some ancient Cedars - about four miles south of Mobile on the west Side of the Bay - in plain view of Spanish Fort.  We are encamped in a beautiful place, the Country is Slightly rolling - very heavily timbered - & about 20 - or 30 feet above the tide.  Yesterday I walked down the Shell Road (this is a road from the Citty down the Bay South- & graded the same as a turnpike & covered with Oyster shells two or three inches, it is the finest road I have ever seen - smooth as a floor) a mile or two under the shade of great magnolia trees.  It would be dificult to describe the beauty of the scenery - the forests of large pine - Magnolia, Beech, Live Oak &c.  The flower gardens on the wayside - groves of Fig trees, Peach, Apple, Plum, Orange, Mulberry - & more than I can enumerate.  Then the beautiful Bay quietly sleeping beneath - with numerous steam & sail ships some runing under steam - others - under widespread sails.  Vilages - & dense forests across the sparkling water all combine to make it one of the most lovely scenes it has been my good fortune to witness - & I couldn't help thinking as I passed one beautifully rose-embowered location after another - how well I should have liked to have had you with me - I could have enjoyed my walk very much - as it was, I was alone & could only look at the beautiful Scenery & admire in Silence - The old fields and roadside are infested with runing briars - dewberries, bull of fine ripe berries - I picked & ate all I wanted - There are Mulberries too of the finest quality - The soil is generally poor - but the climate very fine & take it all together, is a splendid country no doubt to live in
