These two letters were written by George W. Kelly a resident of Carbondale, Illinois.  He enlisted on 8/26/62 as a 2^nd Lieutenant in Company F of the 81^st Illinois Infantry. 

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The first letter:

·         “I have already written you about us being in so many fights.  I never heard of soldiers having to fight
so many battles in so short a time as Logan’s Division has done lately.  We have been in all, and some of
them we did all the fighting.  We were victorious in all except that “murderous charge” we had to make
on the forts here.”

·         “We all through it would be worse than folly and expected that hardly a man of us would get through
alive.  Our regiment led the charge.  We charged up within 40 yards of the forts, and some of the men
 run ahead with the ladders and set them up against the fort.  We all saw they were not more than half
long enough.”

·         “Colonel Dollins then ordered us to fall back below the brow of the hill to wait for longer ladders; just
then he was killed.  The whole affair was miserably managed.  We were ordered not to fire a shot until
we were inside the works.  Our men were brave to desperation.  Some old military men say that but few
soldiers in the world would have moved on under such a fire as we did.”

·         “Our men never wavered until they were ordered to fall back though the men were falling faster than
they could be counted.  But as good luck will have it, most of them were only wounded.  There are only
16 dead up to this time; a few more will die, but most all will get well.  There is one consolation I have
and that is that we have killed a good many more Rebels than they have of our regiment.”    

·         “In our fight on the 16^th near Baker’s Creek or “Champion Hill” as we call it, our reg’t. alone fought two
Reb reg’ts. And one battery.  We whipped them and took 5 pieces of their battery.  They run like sheep
and left 25 of their men dead on the field.  That is more than we have had killed altogether.  Pemberton
had his whole army at Baker’s Creek.  We whipped him as bad as they did us at Bull Run.  He made
another stand at Black River Bridge, and he got whipped again.”

·         “Grant’s Army has captured, since we crossed the river, eighteen thousand prisoners and one hundred
and thirty-five pieces artillery.  Pemberton left Vicksburg with sixty pieces artillery; he got back with
three.”

·         “Sherman captured at Harris Bluff six thousand prisoners and sixty pieces artillery.  We have got them
entirely surrounded, penned up in a small space and are bombarding them both front and rear.  They will
soon be glad to surrender.”

·         “General Grant told us yesterday all he asked of us was to keep them in; that we need not fight any more,
that he had as good a thing on them as he wanted.  We have sharpshooters all round within 100 yards of
their forts, and when one of them sticks up his head, he is mighty apt to feel a piece of cold lead.”

·         “Rebel General Joe Johnson came up in our rear day before yesterday.  He expected to get into Vicksburg
to reinforce Pemberton.  He got a good thrashing, lost a fine lot of prisoners, and went back howling
towards Raymond…”

·         “We have not taken Vicksburg yet, but hope to be able to write soon that we have it.  We keep shelling
away at them and they throw a good many shells over among us, but we have got used to that, and we
don’t mind it though they kill and wound some of us every day.  We throw 20 shells among them to where
they throw one among us, and we must certainly kill a good many of them.”

·         “Deserters come out every night.  They say we have killed a great many soldiers and a good many women
and children.  They say all the citizens and nearly all the soldiers want Pemberton to surrender, but he is
afraid they will hang him if he surrenders while they have anything at all to eat.”

·         “The Rebels come to our lines every night and talk with us.  We are close enough all the time to talk to
them.  And at night, after the firing ceases, the pickets get to talking.  They get our pickets to promise to
let them go back to the fort if they come to us.  I think they come more to get coffee to drink than anything
else, for our boys always give them as much coffee as they can drink.”

·         “They were very saucy at first, but they have got over that.  They say they have given up all hope of Johnson

     coming to help them, and that we can never take the effort by storm, but all we have to do is to sit down and
wait will they eat the last of their grub up and they will have to surrender.  They did not talk that way at first.”

·         “We don’t pay much attention to their stories but keep banging away at them and pounding their walls to
dust, and so they will have to give up soon, grub or no grub.”

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(Transcriptions below photos)

First Letter: