Sources

Lawrence
December 13, 1863

Dear Brother,
I once more seat myself to write a few lines to let you know our whereabouts and how we are getting on, our healths are about as usual. We have hired a house in the village for this winter, but Moses is going to buy forty acres somewhere in the vicinity, good land can be got within three or four miles, for from 8 to 10$ per acre and so well timbered that the tiber will pay for the land. Lumber is high. I should like to have you see some of the Black Walnut Moses helped cut one the other day that was 8 foot across. One of the men wished he had the stump home for a hog pen, now is the time to get a farm here and get it cheap. I wish you could sell your property there and buy here you could just as well have forty acres of land for what you could get for your property there and not be harassed as you are, they think this lace will be the county seat, Paw Paw is the present county seat, but it is not as good a place as here, here is the best sugar bushes here that you ever seen. I never saw timber in any country taper so little as it does here. It runs up 40 or 50 feet just as large as it is at the ground before you come to limbs, it is healthy here as in any place the land is generally well watered. Now about Willard. We wrote to the Captain to investigate the matter privately if he could publicly if he must he has had a private investigation and proved that he sold the watch for $30 as we were informed and a blows for $2, and a few other trinkets he calls them to the Captain, but such we did not consider them, we have his gold pen since the investigation. He (Willard) gave it to the Captain to send to us, the other day we learned from the Lieutenant who commanded the company at the battle and was not far off when Marcus fell, Willard saw him first and came running to him and said Marcus was dead. He told him if he was dead to take whatever he had about him that was valuable as they should be obligated to leave him. Willard started back to where he lay and the Lieutenant followed when he got there he found he was not dead. He raised him up, put his canteen to his mouth and he drank heartily. He ordered an ambulance and had him put on and told the driver to carry him to the general hospital, he had to go the next day in pursuit of the enemy as he was the only commissioned officer present and left Willard to find Marcus and learn his fate, that was all he cold even learn about him, he did not record him among the list of dead for some months, but among the missing for he thought at the time he was stoned by the ball and could be saved by having immediate attention as the ball had lodged he says. Willard had all his effects, whatever they were. He took all that was about his person, but what it was he cold not tell. Willard pretend his manuscript is lost and wherefore I cannot tell, it is of little value to others, but prized by us above gold. He certainly must have had it for he has owned he had his writing the Lieutenant says Marcus had an overcoat and blanket but as to his other clothing he did not know what it was, he knew Willard was a relative and did not take an inventory. Willard has sent home a box of things lately and among them an overcoat, that one of our neighbors says from the description given him of it by one from that company he has no doubt but it was Marcus’, but Willard pretends he had none the poetry we send in this to you was some from his manuscript a soldier wrote it from his book a few days before the battle, but Marcus had written it to us himself the summer before he died if he be dead which I suppose must be so. I wish you would copy it for Hannah, I intended to have had it sent to you before now, we intend to try and get his Ms if it is possible if we have to order a public trial but whether we shall succeed or not God only knows.

Write to us, Brother, as often as you can for you must know we have not a very pleasant time in feriting out this matter, but the truth must come whether it makes friends or foes. Address Lawrence, Van Buren Co, Mich.

Pittsburgh Landing
Imitation of “Bingen on the Rhine”
Oh, ‘tis beautiful, ‘tis beautiful,
the noble Tennessee,
Where it winds among the woodlands,
And along the flowery lea.
But the blood of martyred patriots
has dyed its waters red,
When it sweeps by bloody Pittsburgh,
Dark Pittsburgh, where they bled.

‘Twas a fearful scene of carnage,
Where the opposing armies stood,
Each resolved to win the victory
Or to drench the field with blood.
And they fought with desperate valor,
Those Union Solders brave,
And full many fell at Pittsburgh,
At Pittsburgh found a grave.

There they rest in peaceful slumbers
Beneath the traitors soil,
Their battles all forgotten,
Secure from care and toil;
But full many hearts are mourning
In their distant northern homes,
For those who died at Pittsburgh,
But bravely met their doom.

In full splendor broke the sunrise,
On that fatal Sabbath morn.
But its light was soon extinguished
By the rising battle-storm.
Then the cannon loudly thundered,
And the bullets whistled past,
And the ground grew red at Pittsburgh
With the life tide flowing fast.

Bravely fought our patriot soldiers
Firm they met the rebel host,
But their force was far out-numbered
And, alas! The day was lost.
Stretched upon that field at sunset,
Thousands slept in calm repose,
Slept in peace at bloody Pittsburgh,
Undistinguished, friends and foes.

That night on the field of battle
Those hostile forces lay,
Prepared to renew the contest,
By the mornings earliest ray.
Then again the smoke of conflict
Rolled fiercely o’er the field.
And before our fire at Pittsburgh
The traitorous phalanx reeled.

Awhile the rebel columns,
Unbroken firmly stood.
Till their ranks were thinned with carnage
And the ground grew red with blood,
Then they willingly retreated
From the fray themselves had sought
And we conquered there at Pittsburgh
Though ‘twas victory dearly bought.

M.S. Nelson
Army of the Mississippi
Western S.S.
14th Missouri Regiment, Company D