Newbern June 1st 1863
Dear Mother
I now take my pen in hand
to let you know where I am I am in
newbern we left new york harbor the
last Wednesday our boat was a pretty
large one we had 75 horses on bord
and about as many men the weather
was pretty good till Friday and the wind
began to blow and the ship began to
pich and that made the men sick
howser was pretty sick and Jim
was sick some I did not get sick
a bit and had a pretty good time
Saturday we got into cape hatteras we
had to lay there three or four hours
to wait for the tide to come in so
that we could get over the bar into
the albimaral sound after we got in
to the sound it was pretty smooth
and good sailing we got into newbern
Sunday morning and then we had
to unload the horses and baggage
we had to lift them out of the
hold by pulleys and bring them ashore
then we started for the quarters
we have pretty good ones it is
a large house with the partisions
tore out and bunks put in we have
got good sheds for our horses the
soldiers some of quarters in the best
houses in the town there is hardly
any white folks here they have all left
there is nothing but niggers and
soldiers here it is a pretty nice place
it is as about as big as syracuse I Should
think there is lots of forts all around
and the river is full of gunboats
to guard against an attack there is
squirmishes with the pickets every day or
two our pickets are out about eleven
miles they fetch in rebble prisoners
every day or to they have got lots of
prisoners here I saw a lot of them
yesterday they a pretty hard lot
the most of them there was some
officers with them they were pretty
Smart lot of men we wont proba
stay where we are a great while we will
into a camp of instruction and then
when we get drilled they are going
to form a brigade of cavalry for there
is lots of cavalry here and a good many
of them have seen service they can
tell some pretty good yarns some
of them they allow cavalry to go any
where here and other soldiers they stop
and ask them for a pass they a sentinel
on every corner it takes five hundred
men for guard the most of them
are infantry there is no man allowed
about the street after (9) o clock at night
there aint any liquor allowed to be sold here
the strongest drink is pop beer if they
catch a man drunk they make him
wear a ball and chain for 6 months
we are in Gen Fosters division
he don’t give the officers any more
favors than he can help the officers
have got now where they cant do as
they are a might to the writ of corpus
has played out it did not amount to much
I guess the lawyers were bought off
the weather is nice here but pretty
warm the fruit is ripe here peas and
corn and such stuff but there is
not much stuf raised here for the
niggers are to lazy to raise any
thing you see them strutting about
the streets with their masters things
they live in the nicest stile they
live in the nicest of houses most
of the boys have got a young nigger
to wait on him I have got one
he helps me watter horses and feed
them and all such things we have
a goodeel fun with them I guess
I will have to fetch Tommy home
a little nigger when I come I like
it first rate here if I dont get
skinned by a nigger or rebblewoosterk@cortland.edu
Copyright © Kenneth Jennings Wooster
All rights are reserved.
Last Modified: 20 March 1997; 23 December 2002.
