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THIS LETTER IS FROM HILLIARD DORSEY TO HIS PARENTS, ANDREW & NANCY (SMITH) DORSEY IN WHITE CO. GA.  I CAN'T READ THE EXACT DATE BECAUSE IT  IS SMUDGED & THE LETTER  APPEARS TO BE WATER (TEAR?) STAINED IN PLACES.    HILLIARD WENT ON TO MAKE A NAME FOR HIMSELF IN THE WAR & WAS LATER SHOT & KILLED BY HIS WIFE'S FATHER IN CA. 
 Submitted by Diane Ethridge
 
                                                                      31st, ?, 1847
 
Dear Parents,
  
Came to land yesterday & I am very glad to get something from you before I leave this place.  You spoke of others writing but I did not receive anything but yours & one from Billy Haralson & I am so busy that I cannot write long.  Though it is not for want of respect & I am so nervous that I can scarcely write.   We are called the Mississippi Battalion and we have 3 companies at this place at Vicksburg looking for them every day.  I belong to the 3rd company as they are composed of the DeSoto Boys & my particular friends.  DeSoto Volunteers is their name.  I should probably take the individual charge of the company as the boys are very anxious that I should.  We are all on foot or that is we are uninitiated Miss Riflemen designed mostly for skirmishing.    Our splendid rifles shoot 250 yds.  I shall reserve one for Arnold when I return.  We are now ordered to start for Vera Cruz Sunday morning but as those companies have not yet arrived, we may remain until later though I cannot tell when.  These government fellows are very uncertain.  I can never tell what they are going to do until they are at it.  When we start from here though we will go up on steam ship to Vera Cruz, thence by land to the Great City, Mexico to view its beautiful domes & spires and then we are going to open a line from the city to the Pacific Ocean.  This is done to have a transport taken from the city to the ocean.  We volunteers will have to guide the units whilst the regulars will do the work.  I am very glad that we are ordered to do this as we will be in a pretty place & get to see the country . 
 
I am finely placed & fattening like a pig & I know that our valor cannot be doubted and we crave for our bravery to be upon the battlefield.  We face the roaring canon with the tenacity of the lion upon his prey.  Although I believe we will be cool & sober & do our duty with  sobriety & cheerfulness and may the God of battles guide us aright as we march all of our men & help us fight humanely & judiciously with our enemy & help them place their  peace in our power. 
 
As it regards Waddy Hunt, he has sworn to a lie.  I expect that Bro. Wm recollects me asking him to change a $20 bill in Carr's Store one court day at Mt. Yonah.  He gave me $10 in silver.  I then gave Hunt the silver Wm gave me and Hunt gave me a $20 bill.  Then Bro Wm went on to your house that night & you gave me $10 & Wm $10 & I gave you the $20 dollar bill.  I recollect it all as though it was yesterday and I expect Wm recollects it all too.  I am perfectly willing to swear that Hunt  never paid me back on that note and he knows it.  Make him write it down.  If I ever see him again, I will get it on its value. 
 
I should much like to see you all before I go on but as I wrote you before, my country calls, the blood of my fellowman calls from the walls of Monterrey, the plains of Buena Vista, the heights of Cerro Gordo and the fields in and about Mexico.  And Oh!  see the Georgian marching out and shot down in cold blood.  We want revenge & shall have it at the horizon of my life & then I'll know that I am with my friends, those who are many, to die at my side. 
 
Mother dear, don't be nervous about me.  I often think of you & know your are asking about me but I reckon you have received my post & if you just have to look at that & it will have to do.  See me in my official capacity and think that you have a son in the Army at the defense of his country & that probably he may achieve victory after victory & then return to his Mother's busom  & receive a welcome to his youthful home & sit down by his old fireside in the presence of his parents & tells them those things he has seen & experienced.  And now he will sit down to the table & do as he did whilst a little shirt tail boy.  Mother dear, think on those things for I can now see you sitting in your old corner this Friday evening.  I feel lonesome and sad at the thought of leaving my native shores & going to an enemy's land.  Part of the hard trial of a soldier,  but I can clasp my hands to my heart and say that my conscience is clear and I can look to the Son of Heaven for peace & whilst I may be marching upon my death, I will be thinking of my old friends in Habersham.  God bless you all.
 
It would be perfectly useless for me to write to all of you in different letters.   Now all of you write to me immediately & combine it & I will do the same.  The few words you spoke about Eliza stick me to the heart,  although I want the particulars, I never want to see her again. 
 
                                                              Your son,  H.P. Dorsey
 
When you write just write as though it was before and say like you said before on the back with this addition, In The Care Of   P. H. Skipworth in New Orleans as we have made arrangements with them to forward our letters to us.  It will be a great deal safer & quicker.  I will give you a name inside. 


 

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