-^
��296
��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.
��into camp at what was then called (and I believe is yet) Camp Washington, where we were organ- ized into regiments. We were put into the third regiment, under Samuel R. Curtis, who was our Colonel, and who was Gren. S. R. Curtis of the war of the rebellion. We left Cincin- nati on or about the 1st of July, by steamer, for New Orleans, and were about seven days on the passage. We landed at Camp Jackson, at that time about four miles below the city of New Orleans, between the river and Lake Pontchartrain, on Friday evening. I slept that night under the shade of four live oaks, where (len. Packingham died, at the time of the great battle of New Orleans. I sat under the shade of those trees the next day (Saturday), and wrote a letter home to Mans- field, and put some of the leaves and long Spanish moss from those four oaks in the letter. The next morning (Sunday) we took ship to cross the Gulf of Mexico. We sailed down the river and got into the gulf in the dusk of the evening. We had a very rough time in crossing ; the men were all more or less sea- sick. I was very sick myself, having a very severe spell of fever, besides the sea-sickness. We were some ten days in crossing over to the Brazos Santiago Island, and on account of the rough sea we had to lie at anchor four days before we could land. Brother James was on another vessel, acting in the commissary department. After lying off the Brazos (which is nothing but a large sand bar), as above stated, four days, we landed and remained there a few days (I remember the exact time), and then marched on to the mouth of the Rio Grande River. Arriving there, we moved up the river (a very crooked stream), some- times on board steamers and again march- ing on foot along the banks, until we arrived at what was called Camp Belknap, on the Texas side, opposite a small Mexican town called Burita. We remained there a few days, the river was so high, there having been so
��much rain that the banks were overflowed, and in order to keep out of the water we were com- pelled to cut brush and pile it up, on which to make our beds. After remaining there a few days we moved up the river to Camp Curtis, a little above Fort Brown, on the Texas side, and opposite the city of Matamoras, and where Brownsville is now located. We remained there a few da^^s, when my company and one other of our regiment marched into Fort Brown, two companies into Fort Parades and the other six across the river into Matamoras. When we moved into Fort Brown it was sur- rounded with water, the river was so high that we had to use flat-boats to get in. We had' charge of a lot of Mexican prisoners, who were in the fort. We remained in charge of the fort and city until the latter part of the winter of 184(3 and 1847. when we were ordered on up to Camargo, Monterey, Saltillo and Buena Vista.
" On the march from Matamoras to Camargo, a distance of about one hundred and twenty- five miles, we had to depend principally on getting water to drink, cook, etc., from the lagoons or ponds ; and, as there had been no rain for several months, and the river was low, a good many of the lagoons were dry, and those that had water in them had become stagnant, the water was thick with a green scum over it, and full of dead fish, and cattle that had come in there from the surrounding country to get drink, stuck fast, lay down and died. We would sometimes have to get in on the carcass of a dead cow to keep out of the mud while getting water to drink. The water was so thick that, as the boys said, " you had to bite it ofl' when you wanted to stop drinking." We struck the river two or three times on the march, and some of our men came very near losing their lives by drinking too freely of the cold river water. We finally arrived at Camargo, where the famous Fort Pillow was located. Gen. Pillow, who was in the late rebel army, was stationed
��~
�� �
