1863 Letter from Lewis Bullard during the Civil War

by Martha DeWolf

Camp Farr,
Bayou Gentilly Louisiana
March 20^th 1863

Dear Sister,

I received your letter & thank you heartily for writing. Camp life is quite dull & monotonous with us at present and letters from our friends (reminding us as they do of the happy homes we have left behind) are eagerly received by us. We are at present encamped near the railroad which runs between New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain.

We are in plain sight of the city & only three miles from it. We have visited this city a number of times on brigade drills & found it a very different looking place from Boston, in many of the streets grass could be seen growing through the pavements, while large numbers of stores & other places of business are closed. The people here we believe are one and all, with very few exceptions, secesh[secessionist].

The women certainly lose no opportunity of insulting us, the stars and bars are all the rage & secesh flags are worn openly & with impunity by these persons. When we meet them in the street they often greet us with a face hideous and savage enough for an Indian. The men are not so open in their dislike towards us, they find it policy to treat us decently when we meet them but at night when we are on picket the firing of guns & the occasional whiz of a bullet, remind us that our enemies are numerous here & that it’s for our interests to be on the watch for them. Last night we captured four rebel soldiers together with a wagonload of goods intended for the rebel army.

Our campground is low, wet and though we have had Negroes at work draining it a good part of the time since we have been here yet when it rains the mud & water in the streets is not less than five inches in depth & we sadly feel at such times the need of a boat to get over our campground with. It rains here a good part of the time & when it rains the water comes down in pailfuls with drops as large as bullets. The poor fellows who chance to be on guard get, I assure you, a good drenching.

We are surrounded on three sides by a dark dismal gloomy looking swamp, the trees are tall straight & covered with hanging moss. At present these trees are leafing out& the green leaves as seen through this moss presents a curious & interesting appearance. The reptile & insect tribes are well represented in this section of Uncle Sam's territory. Mosquitoes hover round in swarms, they often blow the light out at night by merely flying past it. I have seen them two inches or more in length & when they bite well you can guess fro yourself whether we feel it or not. We generally find ourselves covered with blotches when we rise in the morning. I should think that the rebels would have all the fighting they care about if they had remained at home & done nothing but fight mosquitoes as we are obliged to.

Fleas & flies begin to make their unwelcome appearance. The weather is intolerably warm & what is worse we have no place to cool ourselves when heated. There are no fine shade trees for us to lounge under & rest ourselves when tired. But we are obliged to stand it under this hot burning sun as best we can. Our tents are like hot ovens. I'm writing in one while the water drops from me as freely as it ever does at home in haying time. We would like to bathe in the streams & ponds near here but the sight of alligators, snakes, crawfish & other venomous animals deter us from anything of the kind.

Our work is rather hard at present we go on guard ever