Military: Civil War Letters, 1961, Winn Parish, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: January 26, 1961 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Letters From The Civil War Tell Vivid Story One hundred years ago today, with the angry clouds of war gathering ominously overhead, Louisiana embarked on a course, the effect of which has been felt until this day. On that date Louisiana became the sixth state to secede from the union. Two letters, now almost a century old, vividly portray the part this action played in the lives of those living then. The first describes the feel of being in battle as a man writes his wife back home. The second, written six months later, comes from a friend and tells of the man's death. With the Centennial celebration now getting underway Mrs. Warren Curry, Tannehill, generously made these never before published manuscripts available. The first is written by James D. Williams, the grandfather of her late husband, and is to his wife, Mrs. Margaret Ann Williams. The second is to Mrs. Williams from her husband's mess-mate, R. H. Houston. "I learned" wrote Williams, "how a man feels when the minnie balls and bomb shells fall as thick as hail." The letter was dated May 11, 1863 and written "at Camps Near Ivor Station Virginia." "We left Suffolk, Virginia on the night of the third of this month (May)" he continued, "and got to this place on the fifth. "It was the hardest march we have ever taken; we are now engaged doing picket duty on the Blackwater River." The man, though battle-weary, goes on to describe the strategy used to prevent Yankee General Dix from reinforcing General Hooker. KILLED IN BATTLE In October, his friend Houston penned these words, "I avail myself of this opportunity of informing you of the death of your husband." "He was killed by a grape shot from the enemy's cannon. We was lying down in the line of battle when a grape shot struck James in the left breast. He died almost instantly, he raised his head and said 'I am ruined, Lord have mercy on my soul.'" "That night I went to him and covered him with a blanket; that was all I could do for him. He was buried the next morning." Houston went on to tell of receiving a letter "yesterday that was dated September 11," and continued with, "He was killed on the 14th day of this month (October)." Both letters were mailed to Fulton, Mississippi. Conditions there, at least economically, were not much better than at the front. HIGH WAR PRICES Williams wrote as follows: "Corn is selling from forty-five to fifty dollars per barrel, bacon is one dollar per pound, peas eight dollars per bushel, dried peaches $ 16 per bushel, guber peas 50 cents per quart, and tobacco from one to two dollars per plug. So you see provisions are high in Virginia as well as in Mississippi." Williams tells how they kept Dix from reinforcing Hooker at Fredericksburg until General Lee ordered General Longstreet there with his "corps de arme" and how three battles near Fredericksburg resulted in a great victory in which 25,000 of the enemy were killed or captured. He mentions picket duty near the dismal swamp in Virginia and of the losses suffered by his side. The war went on, bathing the nation in five years of the bloodiest carnage ever witnessed by American men. When it ended, Louisiana and the other southern states felt the tyranny of despotic rule. Then came the long climb back; the return from poverty, destruction and hate. The embers of animosity died, slowly and only now can this blotch in our history and its remnants, letters such as these, be viewed dispassionately in remembrance of the days when Blue and Gray pitted brother against brother and swept America probably close to disaster.