U.S. Gunboat Cincinnati
Carondolet,
April 25th/[18]63

Dear Parents,

I received your letter and a couple from Maggie the other day. We left St. Louis yesterday and are now lying at anchor in front of the weighs at Carondelet or Vide-Poche, Miss... Digital ID: 54026. New York Public LibraryCarondolet, a small town about 6 miles below St. Louis.

We had two coal barges alongside and strange to say the “Cincinnati Sailors” don’t have to do any coaling, but a number of steamboat “roustabouts” are doing it for them. We are going, it is said, to Cape Girard to protect the town and drive out the rebels who have taken possession of the fort at that place. Cape Girard or Girardeau is a pretty little town lying at the foot of a hill on the banks of the Mississippi. At the summit of the hill is a fort and an observatory. It lies between Cairo and St. Louis. I don’t know the exact distance from either place. It appears that the rebels have been giving us a good deal of trouble in the vicinity of Pilot Knob and other parts of Missouri. I had got a kind of an idea into my head that the rebels were pretty well cleaned out of Missouri, but it appears they are still there and are becoming very bold, but I expect that when the Cincinnati boys gets at them and gives them a few shots from their “9 inchers”, they’ll leave in a hurry, at least out of range of the Cincinnati guns.

I am very much disappointed because I could not see the inside of the City of St. Louis. Our boys went ashore in quarter watches, but as I had been ashore in Cairo I could not go until the part of the watch to which I belonged turn came a second time. Yesterday was our day, but as we got under way no liberty was given. A number of our men are still ashore having got drunk I suppose and broken their liberties. But never mind, when we come back again I’ll likely have a chance to see the city as the cars run every half hour, I believe, from St. Louis to Carondolet. The men who have been ashore don’t seem to like the city of St. Louis. They say it is not very clean and that the streets are very narrow.

We have received neither of the two mails which went down to the fleet. Neither have I received any tidings from the box you sent me and it is likely I never will. We have received but two mails since we left the Yazoo. I don’t see why we don’t receive our mails regularly. If we were down at the fleet there might be some excuse because every boat that goes down the river cannot be trusted with mail. I have not heard from Jimmy Stewart since we left Cairo. It is likely he has not received the box or he would have written. Please send me a “table of contents” the next time you write. We lived on “soft tack” and milk while we were in St. Louis, that is, those that had any money, so you see we had good healthy food to eat. One old fellow used to brings us milk, bread, apples, pies and cakes, and I tell you, the way he used to sell things was a caution. I believe if we had staid long enough, he’d made his fortune. We paid ten cents a quart for milk at first, but one morning a milkman came along and run opposition to him, selling his milk for 5 cts per qt, so the old chap got mad and declared he paid 6 ¼ cts per qt for his milk, but as he did not wish to be undersold he would sell it for five. I could not help indulging pretty freely in my old favorites, that is apples, even if I did pay a dime for four each time. John Fox and Snyder are in good health. John Fox is a good chap for he mends my breeches and does a number of other things for me too numerous to mention. I will close this letter as I am getting to the bottom of my sheet and I will write to Maggie some other time. Give my love to all at home.

Your affectionate son,

Daniel

Footnotes

Lewis, Henry. 1854. Carondelet or Vide-Poche, Missouri. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?strucID=119506&imageID=54026 (Accessed May 9, 2008).