CAMP AT MORGANZIA. 165 parade-ground abutting the levee. A view of the Fourteenth's camp at Morganzia is given herewith. There the regiment was incorporated into the Nineteenth Army Corps, being assigned to the second brigade, second division. Col. Wilson of the Fourteenth, being the senior colonel, took command of the second brigade. At that time there were twenty thousand troops in camp at Morganzia, and large accessions were soon afterward made. Gen. William H. Emory, who had previously commanded a division, was appointed to the command of the Nineteenth Corps; and on the 11th of June he held a grand review, with the aim of consolidating and increasing the efficiency of the corps organization. The review took place on a broad plain two miles from the camp of the Fourteenth. The summer heat was intense, and the men suffered almost to exhaustion; a heavy shower finally drenching the entire army. The review was the grandest parade which the regiment had ever witnessed; and, considering that the corps had just passed through the vicissitudes of an unfortunate campaign, the several organizations presented a remarkably good appearance. Two days later, on the 13th, Major-Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, who lost a leg at Gettysburg, arrived at Morganzia, and reviewed the Nineteenth Corps. These marshallings of a great army corps in battle array, and parading of the different battalions together, was beneficial, and even necessary in the light of subsequent events. An esprit du corps was engendered, which proved its potency on later fields. It was a splendid pageant, thirty thousand men in line, all veteran troops. Gen. Sickles, riding with one stirrup empty, and his orderly following with crutches, was the recipient of a hearty ovation; and the battalions marched in review in columns by division. If, on the previous occasion, the heat was intense, on the 13th it had become nearly intolerable. The men wilted like cabbage-leaves, and those accustomed to the use of stimulants succumbed to an extraordinary degree. Had the march not been conducted with great prudence, and the utmost consideration been shown by the commanding-officers, a wholesale prostration must have resulted from the exposure. The sickly season was upon the army; and the Fourteenth, unaccustomed to the latitude and climate, suffered peculiarly. Malarial and typhoid fevers, dysentery and diarrhoea, swept off the weaker ones at a fearful rate ; and some of the best physiques in the regiment surrendered. The service of the Fourteenth in Louisiana was more deadly than any active campaign in more northerly latitudes could have proved, even with frequent battles. June 16 the regiment was visited by the inspector-general of the Department of the Gulf, and its arms and accoutrements pronounced in excellent condition. It was found that the Eighth N. H. was in another division of the Nineteenth Corps, and mutual visits were paid by members of the two battalions. A pleasant river expedition varied the hot and unhealthy monotony of camp-life at Morganzia, although two or three fine brigade dress-parades were held when the weather permitted. On the 17th Capt. Chandler took command of Company A. Since the opening of the Mississippi to navigation, on the fall of Port Hudson July 9, 1863, the government, as well as private enterprise, had been constantly increasing the number of boats plying between Cairo and New Orleans. It was most important to preserve an open channel and safe transit. The Rebels were never idle long at a time; and, after the close of the Red-river campaign, they amused themselves by planting batteries on the river-bank at annoying points, and stationing sharp-shooters where they could coolly pick off the pilots. So fatal was this device growing to be, that every boat on the river lined its pilot-house with boiler-iron. To break up these infesting guerilla assassins, the army co-operated with the navy; three monitors being supported by the second division of the Nineteenth Corps, on transports, including detachments of cavalry and a battery of light artillery. The expedition embarked on the evening of the 19th, the Fourteenth going aboard the "Joseph Pierce." At midnight the fleet left the landing, and proceeded slowly up the river; the gunboats being unable to attain much speed. On the 20th the troops reached Tunica Bend, where a Rebel battery had been located. The cavalry and a portion of the infantry landed, and THE WORTH OF A LETTER. 167 made a reconnoissance occupying most of the day; the transports lying at the opposite shore. The Fourteenth remained on the boat. At night, in pursuance of a preconcerted signal, the transports recrossed the river, and received on board the reconnoitring party, which failed to meet or discover any force of the enemy. The flotilla then steamed up the river all night, and, at six o'clock on the morning of the 21st, arrived at Fort Adams in the State of Mississippi. Here the whole force landed, and bivouacked in a pleasant grove near the river. The day was spent there agreeably, while the cavalry detachment scoured the adjacent territory, but found no Rebels. Just after dark the troops were ordered aboard the transports, and the prows were headed down stream. Stopping on the way to wood up, the famous picturesqueness of a Mississippi steamboat, taking wood in the flare of flambeaux, and amid the droll songs and shouts of the wood-gangs, was vividly spread before the boys of the Fourteenth. At ten o'clock that night, the expedition was safely back in Morganzia. LETTERS FROM HOME. In primitive New-England times it doubtless was a notable event in many a house when a letter was brought from the post-office, which was never visited oftener than once a week. The conditions and relations of our fathers made small demands upon the postman; and country home-life drifted down the decades to 1861, not much affected by the mails nor familiarized with frequent correspondence. But who can forget the transformation that was wrought throughout the land by the depletion of homes when stretches of dangerous distances separated the man or the boy from a bereft, and ofttimes desolate, fireside, —a gulf which nothing, save the precious posted missive, was allowed to span? "Never morning wore to evening, But some heart did break." Men squatted, à la Turque, on divans of turf or earth, or even muddy logs, about camp-fires under the cold stars, whose un |