This letter is five pages long and written in ink. It is written in a clear hand and is very legible. The letter was written by Private Charles Stickney of Battery B, 1^st Illinois Light Artillery to his mother. The letter is headed “Taylor’s Battery, Memphis Tenn. Monday December 15, 1862.”After an opening salutation Private Stickney tells his mother about an expedition he was on. He says “The object of our expedition was to drive Price from the Tallahatchie River.” He talks about the fine weather they had for marching and informs her that when they reached Germantown “the water we had to drink that day came from the Baptismal Font of a Baptist Church. Delicious thought!” Next, he complains about his surroundings “The room is full of fellows who are making a great fuss with a fiddle + guitar but I’ll try if I can get a desk + chair down stairs in the Officer’s Quarters.” After getting settled again he writes about the march. He says “The first of December I woke + found that I had slept in a puddle of water. We were encamped in a corn field in close proximity to the rebels. I slept in a small low tent like this (here he draws a dog tent) together with two others + had the felicity of getting up at 5 A.M. + standing 2 hours guard in my wet clothes.”

Stickney next relates arriving at Tallahatchie to find Price gone, the town deserted and the bridge burned. He talks of Grant’s army being in the proximity and he mentions a friend named Clifford who came over from Grant’s army to see him. Of Clifford he says “He is the same fellow but looks a great deal different from what he did when I last saw him. He has doffed all the fine ‘fixins’ + looks like a rough soldier but I think he is more fleshy + stronger than before. Indeed I know it. He says I have gained physically too.”

Now Stickney goes on to relate his experiences foraging. Of this he says “… obliged to go out foraging. We went on horses + at one house I got the darkey girls to give me some corn bread they were baking + got some honey out of the hive which afterwards gave me the diarrhoia.“ He goes on to discuss the march back to Memphis and of Grant’s army going on to Vicksburg. Stickney closes his letter by talking about the mail and his need for a better pen.

Charles Wade Stickney was residing in Chicago when he enlisted as a Private in Battery B, 1^st Illinois Light Artillery on August 7, 1862. It is known that he also served in Battery A for a while. The date of his transfer from Battery B to Battery A is not known. He was mustered out on June 3, 1865. Stickney applied for a Government Pension on March 25, 1901. At the time he was living in Idaho.

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