In camp near Franklin LaJany. 10th 1864My Dear Laura

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You will see by the above date that we have again moved. Our old camp near New Ibenia was wretchedly wet, muddy and uncomfortable - there was not a sticks of wood nearer than 5 miles, all the Hay & corn for horses war gone & for this reason, more than in regard to the comfort of the men a move was ordered. I wish I could tell you how our men suffred, our Regiment was in the worst place in the camp. the much & water would average to be 4 inches deep - the men nearly all have shoes, and every step they took, wet thier feet - this mud froze every night some nights hard enough to bear up a man. & others not so hard. - Tuesday night at dark orders came from Gen. Franklin to have every thing packed up ready to start at 7, the next morning - soon after it commenced raining & freezing & so continued all night - next morning, our tents were covered with ice, from 1/8 to 1/2 an inch thick, & in taking them down, many had to be out away from the boards & frames that they were nailed to, thus almost ruining them

- but nobody cared for that, they were too glad to get out of such a place and get where there was some wood - so every thing was got ready, but instead of starting - orders came to remain where we were one day more - Such a cursing of Gen Franklin went up, as was not very pleasant to hear - Fully expecting to leave men and officers had burned the rails & slabs that alone had hitherto kept them out of the mud - Now they must put up, as best they could then icy, cracked tents, & be seen that they had no fire, no foundation, no comfort of any kind - but Thursday Morning we started, until 10-o-clock that hubs were so frozen as to bear up the men - but the points of cane stubble & frozen nuts were so sharp as to take the soles clean off of a great many of the 1/2 morn shoes of the men, about 10, they commenced sinking in the mind through the post, deeper & deeper as the day grew warmer, Artillery cassions were left sticking in the mud, wagons broke down, but more mules & horses, used up, were seen left along the road In some places the mud was 14 to 18 inches deep many of the men lost their shoes in the bottom of the mud.

In consequence of starting at such a time, the army had to travel 35 miles to reach a point only 21 miles distant - that is they had to

follow the Bayon around to Franklin, instead of taking the prarie road straight across - There are 5 Steamboats on the river, and any one not versed in Potomac tactics would have supposed that we might have been transported on them. It is not proper for any officer to censure his superiors, and I will only say that Every body else is disgusted with Gen. Franklin - He has refusedneglected his [      ] chances of engaging the Enemy - He wears his army out & kills double the men doing picket duty, that he would if he went ahead & had a battle. He has been frequently accused in the Northen Papers (before he left the Potomac) of being a coward & half-traitor. We were three days getting here - all the small boats had been taken out on to the other side of the bayou so that the soldiers could not get across. When we stopped, I told my boy buy Aron Drownnegro that, bricks for chimney & fireplace, boards for a floor & some dry wood, I must have, & he must get them - he got another darkie to keep him. & they rolled a caldron kettle into the river & one of them got into it & paddled across the river, I never saw nor heard of such a thing before - when he got out in to the middle of the river thousands were looking at him & charming him on, When he got across, he took a scow

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and came back again & in this more than a hundred men recrossed. They in turn got more boats & soon a thousand men swarmed the other bank of the river. Where before peace & plenty had reigned - Brick, boards, stoves, hay for beds, fence of fires, sheep, calves hens, geese, ducks, beer, tools of all kinds, negroes - Every thing, began to cross the river. The old planter who had two sons in the rebel army started to cross the river to complain to Gen. Franklin, but men on this side drove him back. In an hours time - nothing was left him but his bare acres & house. All the Generals knew about it but Franklin, but said nothing, the men were determined to be comfortable as possible & their officers were more than willing, but if I could not convey to yr any adequate idea of the truth through I should write you a [     ] full, about the exposurer of the men & sufferings - no man has died in my company since I returned, and I do not mean to have any die for sometime to come, if I can prevent it by care & attention to the men 0 many of them in my company, are young from 18 to 21, and I think a great deal of them & I am proud to say, they do of me. I like my present place much better than I did that of Adjutant. The men Adjutant is not liked at all, probably, more because he was not from the Regiment than any thing else [for I think he is smart enough to do well]