Letters of Rev. John W. Alvord

-mitted to land, & these must wear white badges around their arms, so that many of us are prisoners. What a great mercy it is that our poor fellows can get off in this way. We expect them in dreadful condition, & the doctors say it will be many hours before they can be properly cleaned & their wounds dressed — but all this only enhances the boon of their deliverance. Day before yesterday M^r Eddy was brought down — will they not rejoice in Winsted? I could not see him but believe he is in good health. Morning — no prisoners came during the night & here we are very quiet though there was much firing about midnight below us, which we could not understand — probably some attack upon our working parties at Harrisons Landing.

The great black war vessels on the river, & the gloomy looking secesh ^rebel^ country around us bounds our vision,