"Although I was not in the very best mood, as I was brought down to New Orleans to enjoy the sights all around me, still I was tremendously impressed with the majesty and immensity of the ever-glorious Mississippi. Well, to be sure,—to be sure! What a grand factor of our national greatness is the Mississippi! I don’t wonder at yourself and Mrs. John B. Sutherland always making such a fuss over our glorious river. Indeed too much can never be spoken in its praise, and, above all,—of the great Creator who made it. I have seen plenty of the ’Father of Waters’ before on many a long day, as I went sweeping past the forts where I was located further up the river; but, as we came on, it received so many and such large rivers, into its swollen waters, till it was more like a sea than a river; and, although level and destitute of beautiful banks like the Ohio, it had ever an increasing majesty and grandeur about it that mightily impressed all who beheld it. I don’t wonder at Uncle Sam fighting so hard for the restoration of the Union. Such a river as the Mississippi alone,—if there were no other,—is the very joy and glory of the United States. But I shall have more to tell you about these things at another time, and I hope to be able to do so by word of mouth when the war is over. "I very much regret to inform you that several of my wounded comrades have died since we were all brought into this hospital, though the most part of them, in common with myself, have recovered; and we now all desire to go back to war as soon as we are well.