On Board Lavinia Logan March 9th /63 on the Taliehatchie River in the State of Miss.
Dear Friend Han.
I will inform you with Pleasure that I am Well at the Present & I hope that When this Reaches you that it may find you Well I Rec'd your letter of Feb. the 8th on the 2nd day of this month & I Have Delayed Answering it untill Which I Hope you will Excuse me for & I will Promise to do better in the future. I was verry glad to Hear from you & that you was Well.. The Boys are Generaly Well I Believe at the Present I will Inform you that we left Helena on the 24th of Feb.. & we Have Bin on the Boat Ever since. We was 6 days comeing 18 miles through the Yazoo Pass one of the Crookedest & narrest Channels that a Steam Boat Ever went Before But we Have got through with about 25 Boats all together We Have Some 6 or 8 gun Boats with us & we are now Penetrating into the verry Heart of Dixie Since we Started we Have taken over one Hundred thousand Dollars worth of cotton & taken what Beef & chickens that we needed We Have See no Armed Rebels yet But we are Exspecting to be Fired at Every day By Guirillias I know not where we are going for certain But think that we will Fight our way to Vicksburg I Exspect that we will Have our first fight at Yazoo City Below the mouth of the Taliehatchie River I Exspect Ere this Reaches you to be in a fight--But that you know is what we all come to war for We Have got to fight Before we Can come Home
We can not Exspect this Rebellion Put Down with out Fighting & I am in favor of Doing the Fighting as soon as Possible & then those of us that are Spared to live can Return to there Honnest Friends I will tell you that Lieut Walker & Will & all convalescents were left at Helena Will was getting Pretty Stout again But I told Him that comeing with this Expedition might throw Him Back sick again & He concluded to stay though I Exspect that He Has writen to you Before this time
Our teams & teamsters & Hospital & nurses was left at Helena When we Started we Exspected that we will Be gone a month yet I care not How long we are out If we can Do any thing to Hurt the Rebel. & we don't all gett killed or Captured
If you see Amanda Please tell Her where I am & that I know not How soon that I will write Home I may not write untill I see the End of our Expedition though tell Her I will If Necessary at any time tell Her that I have written 2 letters Home Since I started Well Han. I Believe that I have written all of any Importance at the Present--I can't say how Soon this letter will get Back to Helena
Please write Soon My love & Respects to all & Reserve a share for your self Please Excuse my Bad writting for I have a Poor way of writing
Direct as before Verry Respectfully yours in Friend Ship
love & truthNewton Scott
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