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Head Quarters, 1st Brig., 1st Div., 11th A.C.
Nashville Febry. 22nd 1864
My Dear Wife

Your letter of the 15th came to hand this evening.¹ I am happy to hear that you enjoy such good health. I telegraphed to you this morning informing you that we would leave here to-morrow.² We are loaded & the train has started, so that there is not much probability of our not going this time.

Mrs. Harrison arrived yesterday evening. The train was several hours behind time. She had not been in bed a half hour before the orders came to march. How would you have enjoyed it? She will remain in the city a couple of weeks.

Harry McDowell starts home in the morning, & Jim Morrow.³ I will write to you as often as I can on the march.

You wrote to me as to what you should do. I have still some hope of getting home. Since I set down we recd. orders to send out our Pickets again. Another sell. It is now so late that I cannot write more, or I will not get to see McDowell. I am well. Harry will give you all the news. Chris [Yetter] & Alf [Huetson] were here to-night. I will write more by mail. May God bless you. Good night,

Your Affect. Husband
J. F. Culver

1. Mary Culver’s letter of February 15 is missing from the Culver Collection. [↩]
2. To prevent Confederate General Johnston from rushing soldiers from his Army of Tennessee to Demopolis, Ala., to oppose General Sherman’s columns which had advanced east from Vicksburg to Meridian, Miss., General Grant directed General Thomas to employ two corps of his Army of the Cumberland to make a forced reconnaissance toward Dalton. This movement was to begin not later than Monday morning, the 22d. In conjunction with this movement, orders were received by General Ward to start Harrison’s brigade for Bridgeport, Ala., where it would report to General Howard. On the departure of Harrison’s brigade, Ward’s 2d Brigade would report to General Rousseau and take post at Nashville, Lavergne, and McMinnville. O. R., Ser. I, Vol. XXXII, pt. I, p. 25; pt. II, p. 435. [↩]
3. Lieutenant McDowell and Sergeant Morrow were to return to Illinois on recruiting duty. William H. H. McDowell, a 21-year-old farmer, was mustered into service on Sept. 8, 1862, as sergeant major of the 129th Illinois, and on April 17, 1863 he was commissioned 2d lieutenant of Company E. On Feb. 22, 1864, he started for Illinois to bring up a detail of recruits from Camp Yates, and rejoined the regiment in April. In August 1864 McDowell was detailed to the XX Corps’ ambulance corps, and in January was assigned to duty with the Pioneer Corps. He was mustered out with the regiment on June 8, 1865, near Washington, D.C. James Morrow, a 26-year-old clerk, was mustered into service on Sept. 8, 1862, as a sergeant in Company G, 129th Illinois Infantry. Sergeant Morrow accompanied Lieutenant McDowell to Illinois on recruiting duty, but did not rejoin the regiment until mid-summer. He was mustered out on June 8, 1865, near Washington, D.C. Compiled Service Records of Union Soldiers, NA. [↩]