We Spent Two Days In The Camp Close Upon The Green River, And I Do
Not Know That I Enjoyed Any Days Of My Trip More Thoroughly Than I
Did These.
In truth, for the last month since I had left
Washington, my life had not been one of enjoyment.
I had been
rolling in mud and had been damp with filth. Camp Wood, as they
called this military settlement on the Green River, was also muddy;
but we were excellently well mounted; the weather was very cold, but
peculiarly fine, and the soldiers around us, as far as we could
judge, seemed to be better off in all respects than those we had
visited at St. Louis, at Rolla, or at Cairo. They were all in
tents, and seemed to be light-spirited and happy. Their rations
were excellent; but so much may, I think, be said of the whole
Northern army, from Alexandria on the Potomac to Springfield in the
west of Missouri. There was very little illness at that time in the
camp in Kentucky, and the reports made to us led us to think that on
the whole this had been the most healthy division of the army. The
men, moreover, were less muddy than their brethren either east or
west of them - at any rate this may be said of them as regards the
infantry.
But perhaps the greatest charm of the place to me was the beauty of
the scenery. The Green River at this spot is as picturesque a
stream as I ever remember to have seen in such a country. It lies
low down between high banks, and curves hither and thither, never
keeping a straight line. Its banks are wooded; but not, as is so
common in America, by continuous, stunted, uninteresting forest, but
by large single trees standing on small patches of meadow by the
water side, with the high banks rising over them, with glades
through them open for the horseman. The rides here in summer must
be very lovely. Even in winter they were so, and made me in love
with the place in spite of that brown, dull, barren aspect which the
presence of an army always creates. I have said that the railway
bridge which crossed the Green River at this spot had been destroyed
by the secessionists. This had been done effectually as regarded
the passage of trains, but only in part as regarded the absolute
fabric of the bridge. It had been, and still was when I saw it, a
beautifully light construction, made of iron and supported over a
valley, rather than over a river, on tall stone piers. One of these
piers had been blown up; but when we were there, the bridge had been
repaired with beams and wooden shafts. This had just been
completed, and an engine had passed over it. I must confess that it
looked to me most perilously insecure; but the eye uneducated in
such mysteries is a bad judge of engineering work.
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