383.
Civil War Letter. St. Charles, Arkansas. September 1864.
Cotton and Gunboats.

"...fortunately we reached the mouth of White River without any mishap. We then went into camp in a beautiful field of cotton. It seemed almost a wanton destruction of property to put us there. I have never seen a more luxuriant crop of cotton that this field contained. The estimated damage to this crop is ($15,000) fifteen thousand dollars which the government will have to pay. It was needless to incur this expense as there was land uncultivated sufficient to encamp our whole force.
There are only three or four houses to be seen in St. Charles. The rest are destroyed by fire. There are two large gun boats sunk in the river in front of our camp. They belonged to the rebels and were destroyed by them so that they would not fall into our hands."

200/400     SOLD: $80.50

Condition: Very good