April 9, 1864

Letter from Chauncey Herbert Cooke, April 9, 1864
Dear Parents:

Left Nashville Thursday last for Huntsville, where we expect to find the regiments of as many states. We were piled in box cars on sacked oats and corn. When night came we pulled the doors shut and rolled up our blankets. We realized we were in the enemy's country. We had heard that trains had been wrecked and bridges burned and it was talked in Nashville that there was a gang of bushwhackers about a hundred miles out on our road in the mountains that were derailing trains.

The worn and slivered rails jolted us fearfully. It must have been near twelve o'clock when the whole train went off the track and every car between the car I was in and the engine, including the engine, turned over down the bank. A number of the soldiers were smothered under the grain sacks and a good many had arm and legs broken. It was found that one of the rails had been pulled up, A man from a farm near by told us in the morning that he heard pounding on the track but supposed it was the section men at work. It took until next afternoon to fix the track and another train came for us. I was not hurt nor was any one in our car. The engineer said we were running 25 miles an hour. We arrived at Stevenson. Alabama the next morning. Murfreesbourough and Bowling Green are on the line of this road. We passed them at night. So much of this country reminds me of Wisconsin. The hills are cultivated more than with us, and they are badly washed. The roads are lined with peach trees all in bloom.

There are several other 25th boys in the crowd on their way to join the regiment. We were ordered into quarters soon as we got here, to wait so we were told, for a train.

Sunday the 10th
Soon as we finished dinner we boarded the train for Huntsville. Arrived just at sunset. Here we found our regiment was in camp 25 miles further at Moresville. We stayed in Huntsville two days.

Say, but this is a pretty town. Only like all towns in the South, there is no life nor business. The negroes wear a happy look but the whites look sullen and don't like to talk. Many of the business houses are boarded up as if they had gone out of business. The big court houses and grounds in the center of the town are fine. A regiment of Jersey Zouaves are camped under the big trees in the court house square. The boys claim they are having a fine time. Light duty, plenty to eat and the finest water in the south. The biggest spring in all the south flows from a cliff nearly a hundred feet high, within a block of the court house. There is nearly as much water as runs in Beef river.

Tuesday, the 12th
On our way to the depot, this noon to take the train for Moresville we saw a horrible sight. A battery of five guns was returning from drill across the railroad track when the shells of one of the cassions exploded blowing six men almost to atoms. One of them was thrown into the air above the tree tops and falling thru limbs his entrails were strung from the limbs to the ground. The gun carriages were shattered to pieces and the horses killed. I want to tell you it was a hard sight to see.

I found the boys at Morseville and was glad to be with them again.

I was surprised to find Dan Hadley and Henry Morse had got back a head of me. Tell their folks, if you see them, that they are hale and hearty.

Henry says he never felt so strong.

Love to all.

CHAUNCEY.