Letter from Orlando L. French to Lydia French

Head quarters 75th Ills Vol Camp near Stevenson Alabama Aug 21st. 1863

Well, Dearest of Women

I am located once more, and find myself down here in the wilderness, in the midst of musquitoes fever & ague, cholera, and the rankest kind of secession, and all the rest of the "ills that flesh is heir to" I guess.

We are camped within a few rods of, & on the line of the Memphis & Charlston railroad and about one mile from Stevenson where the Nashville & Chattanooga rail road crosses. It is a little town of at least a dozzen old dried up, dilapidated buildings

It is one of those towns where the enterprise is all of the sitting down kind

We left our pleasant camp at Winchester Monday the 17th.. at 2 'clock P. M. and arrived at the foot of the Mountains at 6 'clock where we found Rosencrans head quarter train & the signal corps, stuck with no one to help them up, so we camped here for the night, and made our Supper, of roast corn.

At 6 in the Morning our Brigade was stationed at the bad plans stretching from the foot to the top of the mountain 2 miles

& a half, and lifted, pulled, pushed, and otherwise assisted the mules, and at 2 oclock we had our Brigade train all on the top - some of the way was very steep, and all one solid ledge of rough jagged rocks

On the top of the mountain we found a very fine spring of pure, cold, water where we halted. The question was, what fed the spring & where did it come from it being on about the highest point in that vicinity

From the top of the mountain we marched about eight miles and went into bivouac for the night at 6 oclock, and a barrell of whiskey was issued to the troops of this Brig - the other two Brigades of this Div were behind, getting up their trains -

we went to sleep, with orders to have reveille at 2 'clock and to march at half past 3 - this Regt to take the advance and at that hour to move right out without further orders, which we did, it being at this time dark as Egypt, - The road was not very plain and we had some dificulty in keeping the road but at daylight had

made about three miles.

The distance from one brow to the other is twenty miles, of rolling table land of light sandy soil, thickly covered with timber but of small growth, but as we approached this side, the trees were larger & of greater variety among which were the yellow or hard pine Tamarack & a few spruce

We found six or seven log huts on the road and a few small fields of corn. Arround each hut was a liberal supply of pigs & youngs ones, the latter half naked dirty & wild -

we saw no guerillas but when the 2nd Brig came along they were fired upon and two men badly wounded. - one of Davis' orderlies was wounded and the villain that did it was captured.

Rosa determined the fate of all such fellows two weeks ago in a general order, which is, that they be quietly suspended by their necks until the wind is taken out of them. - Down the mountain this side it is very, very steep & in some places the wagons had to be let down with ropes & for this purpose three Regts of this Brig were left, and we were sent on to this place traveling as body guard

for Gen Davis

At the foot of the mountain we struck into and followed down a deep ravine a hundred rods in width, which grad-ualy widened to nearly a mile of rich, fertile soil covered with a luxurious growth of corn, dotted with an occa-sional log hut - I saw the tallest corn stalks, here, that I ever saw in my life, a great deal of it standing fifteen feet high - Down this valley we also found a large crop of peaches to which we helped ourselves without restraint

At 12 o clock we had made 16 miles and halted for dinner - this part of the march was made without any trouble and the boys felt first rate but the remainder of the route lay along the foot of the Mountain on the southwest side where there was no circulation of air and the way the sun poured in on to us was enough to suffocate a salamander. - we had two men sun struck but both have since recovered

When we reached the camp which we did about 6 o clock of the 19th we had only a hundred men to stack arms, the rest lay along the road side