File:Letter of Samuel M. Kennard (unsigned), camp near Corinth, to his parents, May 24, (1862?).jpg

Gives his parents the "Southern side of affairs." Includes account of a naval engagement at Plum Point Bend on the Mississippi River above Fort Pillow, Tenn.

Camp near Corinth May 24

My Dear Parents

There was a gentleman in our tent this morning who offered to carry letters to New Madrid for us and there mail them for St. Louis and as this is the first opportunity I have had for some time I thought I would give you the Southern side of affairs as I see from Northern papers they have been grossly misrepresented first of all the Gun Boat fight in which they admit haveing 2 of their boats sunken. but they say that their men on shore saw most of our boats go down and one of the Mexico surrendered now the facts are that our boats under command on Capt. Montgamery and the infantry on board under command of Officer[?] Thompson to go up and give the Feds a fight. they went up above the fort and commenced the attack in the face of their broadsides without flinching and gave them butt after Butt [word unclear] knocked holes in their sides which rendered them unmanageable but whether we sunk them or not we do not know we saw them run ashore and then settle into the water over their front holes. having accomplished all that was intended that is to try our boats and see if they could resist the ball of the Feds they all retired without serious damage their upper rigging was considerably cut up but their hulls were not damaged in the least as they have -7- feet of compact cotton all around them they cannot compare with the Benton in weight of metal but can stand more balls in the hull with less damage than any of the Fed boats since this fight the People of Memphis do not fear for Ft Pillow the only fear is from below the Federal fleet has appeared off Vicksburgh[Vicksburg] and called for a surrender and the answer returned was that Missippians did not know how to surrender and that the city would never be given up but I fear that the city will be reduced and then the Feds will have possession of the whole river: the fight at Farmington was a complete success for our side, our forces advanced on the town and a fight of about an hour the Feds retreated in good order our loss was very small and of course we know nothing of their loss.

Our line of battle here is about 10 miles long and we are very strongly entrenched[?] and if the Feds come June we can whip all the men they can bring against us, our Genls intenden bringing on the fight last Wednesday and our whole army marched out and waited for the opening of the ball but as Genl Price advanced on our left to engage the enemy but when they got to the enemy position they found they had left they followed them for about 5 miles and as they could not find them returned to camp and the whole army was ordered back much this is the 4th time I have gone out with the 1st Mo Regt although I have not joined it but I want to go into this fight with the boys so as we can help each other. they are very much dissatisfied with the Regt and want to get out of it but since the conscript act has [word unclear] they can not get transfered and will have to stay I wanted to join with them but they advised me not to do so and after this fight I will join either Morgan our old Lex friend or Prices forces but as Morgans men are always scouting around they are more healthy I suppose you heard of his fight he had a very narrow escape but is safe and sound still he lost 4 or 5 men killed and some few wounded and 70 captured but when they taking them down the river they overpowered the crew and when they got to Clarks vill [Clarksville] all escaped I hope we will be attacked here because I am confident of a glorious victory we have about 28 thousand men here eager for a fight and think with our advantages in position we can whip 20,000000 of the best men they can bring the only fear is that they will not fight here but shift around someway and...