May 11, 1862
Sunday, May 11th, 1862
Good Afternoon, Lizzie,
This afternoon we are all enjoying ourselves. Well, it is a beautiful sight We weighed anchor last night about 7 o'clock and started for New Orleans. Now we are about 20 miles from the city. Going up, we see all along the bank of the River, plantations, mostly sugar, some raise corn. The masters live in decent houses. Nothing nice, the slaves live in houses worse than our barns. The land is level, very, and you can see the whole plantation. The corn is about 3/4's grown The sugar cane is about 3 feet high. The Negros came out on the levy (the word Lever as I have called it is spelled Levy) and waved their hats, and the women their bonnets. They were evidently glad to see us. They came out at every plantation. As it is Sunday, we also saw large numbers of cattle, mules & horses. The cattle they do not sell as confederate notes are not at par - the mules they use to draw cane, etc. We saw one plantation where there was about 800 acres planted of cane. The Master's Houses were shaded with very fine trees and we could see plenty of flowers and orange orchards close by the house. Every-thing look so nice & green. Every kind of flower you could imagine (we also saw any quantity of small children along the shore). You must excuse me for writing so much. I am afraid you get impatient in trying to read this letter.
Goodbye until Eve.
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