Brooks, Louis (fl. 1862-1876) to Nelson Rifenburgh
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC08914.012 Author/Creator: Brooks, Louis (fl. 1862-1876) Place Written: Quarantine Station near New Orleans, Louisiana Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 2 January 1863 Pagination: 4 p. ; 20.0 x 24.7 cm. Order a Copy
Stationery includes a stamp of the likeness of General George McClellan. Finally has gotten a little bit of time to write. Is working as a hospital steward. "Could not spend those [leisure] moments in a better way" than writing to him. Supposes he will be there for a "good while." Saw some "niggers" at Newport News about six or eight weeks ago: "I do not believe they were more than half human. They were a cross between a man and a monkey. A kind of orangutan baboon." If these people are what the war is about, "I would never have enlisted." Yesterday, their colonel treated them to a barrel of oysters. The company ate every single oyster. Send a sample of rice in the letter, from a plantation "a couple of miles from this place and only two thousand miles from Germantown." Letter is actually dated January 2, 1862 but based on content and location, year is 1863.
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