Copyright 1998, Scott McKay
Little Rock
Dear Brother
I saw L. B. Newman day before yesterday just from home. He brought me a letter from you, dated June 29th which gave me very great pleasure, and also a fifty dollar confederate bill. I do not know that I will need it, perhapse I may. There is very little here to be bought at any price, consequently money does but little good. I expect I will find it difficult to get the bill broken. I wish you had written a little more explicitly as to the crop. I do not know how to estimate it. I infer form what you have written that it is good. If none but the sandy spots on the old ground were suffering when you wrote and the crop was nearly matured (as Newman says it was) we will make a heavy crop. I hope we will. I am not atal surprised to hear that George is dead. I think Davis' account is to large by at least eighty dollars, and I want you to let it lie over till it can be corrected. If it has not already been settled. If you will examine a little blank book that I left with Ma you will find a correct memorandum, Of all the articles I bought up to a certain date. I do not recollect the date but you can see from it and the acnt. correspond that far. Some things on my acnt. were bought for the plantation, but I think I got most of them from Furgusson and Asherman whos acnts are not larger than I expected to find them. You did not write how much corn you had sent to Millican. If the corn crop is generally short I think you would do well to wait and see if it won't rise in value so that hauling will pay. You should secure a good supply of salt in time, if the most should fail you will be able to convert every grain of your corn into bacon at renumerated prices if the war does not close soon. It will pay war or no war, unless you can sell at the crib. I am glad to hear that your hogs are doing so well. The have become so numerous that I suppose you find some difficulty in keeping them gentle. I hope they are not so mischievous as they were last year. They gave me a vast deal of trouble. I don't know what to say about the negroes. Jenny and Sam are no doubt both anxious to get rid of each other. Sam and Mat might be as much so in less than six months. You may do as you please about it. You may put Mat to any keen active negro boy that you please. You may put her to Jess if you want to or to Sam. I object to Jake, because he is such a gall. Let them suit themselves, if you can consistently do so. You can't allow them too themselves, if you can consistently do so. You can't allow them too many privileges in that respect. If you do they will be running every where. Get them together agreeably if you can and then make them stick.
Our regt or a part of it rather, has been on the verge of mutiny for the past day or two. Our company and Capt. Basel's [Ed: Captain Benjamin Bassel, Commander of Company K, 10th Texas Infantry] are the only two that have had no participants in the affair. Basel's might have had a few. Several whole companies and a majority of the balance were in it. They complain of no pay, rigid discipline and too much drill. Col. Mills [Ed: Lt. Col Roger Q. Mills, 2nd In Command of the 10th Texas Infantry] made them a speech yesterday evening, and most of the captains last night, and I think the thing is about dead this morning. I was afraid yesterday that the regt would disgrace Texas, and for the first time I regretted very much that I was a member of it. I do not suppose that any such thing would have occured had we not been camped with a lot of Arkansas troops most of whom are said to be dissatisfied. Ours caught the infection and it spread amongst them like a contagion. We have been attached to an Ark Brigade for three or four weeks past there being no other Texas troops here (I mean no other infantry) for us to act with. It will no be so long however, as there will soon be thousands of them here. I would be very bad policy to put us with the Ark troops any way. We have no confidence in them and they profess to have none in us. I would dislike to go into battle with them very much, especially if there was a prospect of much hard fighting. No doubt there are a great many of them of the oposite class also, and there is a class of people here that we haven't got in Texas atal. I can't describe them better than to refer you to old Spencer. He is a good representative of the class. They live in a country too poor to attract the attention of enterprising men. Most of the women are loose in their morales and the men are worthless to all intents and purposes. The conscription law has forced them into the service but it hasn't made soldiers of them.
I wrote to Ma relative to our return from White river. We had no battle though we were drawn up in line of battle several times and confidently expected to fight.
Yours
I Harlan
[Confederate Research Center - Hill Jr. College - Hillsboro, Texas]
Notes
Pvt. Isaiah Harlan - Age 30 upon enlistment with Co. G, 10th Texas Infantry, at Virginia Point on November 5, 1861. According to his military records, Harlan was a native of Georgia and a "Land Owner," who lived in Milam County, Texas.
Pvt. Harlan was captured at Arkansas Post, Arkansas, on January 11, 1863; arriving at Camp Douglas Prison near Chicago, Illinois, on January 29th. He was paroled from prison for exchange on April 1, 1863; then was exchanged at City Point, Virginia, six days later.
Pvt. Harlan was killed in action at Pickett's Mill, Georgia, on May 27, 1864; according to the Casualty List of Granbury's Brigade, published in the Memphis Daily Appeal (operating in Atlanta, Georgia), June 4, 1864.
The following was written by Pvt. Benjamin M. Seaton, Co. G, 10th Texas Infantry, wrote the following in his diary: "Company "G" of the 10th lost heavy - 4 kiled and 7 wouned - 2 of them mortal. Died E. W. Bruce, J. L. Clark, I. Harlan, Fredrick Espine, J. P. Daily, William Baine - a heavy blow to the company - braver boys never have bin than those jest named."
Along with the letter above, Fifty-six other of Harlan's wartime letters have survived the ravages of time, and are in the Confederate Research Center of Hill Jr. College at Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas.
Copyright 1998, Scott McKay