Thursday, July 24, 2014

Brigadier General Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, September 15, 1863


Headquarters Dept. Of The Tenn.,
Vicksburg, Sept. 15, 1863.

My visit to New Orleans and the forts some one hundred miles further south has been fraught with much interest. I do not remember in all my life to have had so much hilarity and joy crowded into so brief a space of time.

It has literally been a triumphal march. The only alloy being the unfortunate accident to General Grant, who, I am happy to say, is safely at these headquarters, though I fear his accident will confine him to his bed for a good while.

The New Orleans papers have been filled with allusions to us in various terms of compliment. General Banks has been most assiduous in attention.

Of all this I will write you more at length the moment I find leisure. I have been assigned to active duty in the field and to command the Second Brigade, Sixth Division, Army of the Tennessee, reporting for duty to Major-Gen. J. B. McPherson, who, I am happy to say, is my personal friend. Of this matter I will write more anon. Suffice it now to say that the command is a very fine one, an eminently fighting brigade, and one that distinguished itself on my left in the assault on Vicksburg.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 336

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