Manuscript Database
Creator/Title
Bills, Lafayette, 1824-1886. Letter, 9 September 1861. 2 pp.
Call No.
Mss. C B
Content
In a letter to his uncle dated 9 Sept. 1861 from Camp Boone, near Clarkesville, Tenn., Lafayette Bills, a member of the 2nd Kentucky Infantry (part of the Confederate's Orphan Brigade), declares that "providence or something else has thrown me here to live or die in the southern Confederacy." He reports that he enlisted on 2 August and that there were 2,500 volunteers in camp. With the exception of a company of Mississippi artillery, he continues, the troops are all Kentuckians. He states that the men are weary of inactivity and hope to enter Kentucky soon. A resident of Bourbon County, Kentucky, he asks his uncle for financial assistance to help bring his wife and children to Tennessee. He requests that future correspondence be directed to his commander, Capt. John S. Hope (1821-1875).