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Camp Bayou Pier fifty miles South of Vicksburg Miss. May 6th 1863, Dear Sister Carrie, I will commence a letter to you, although it may be a long time before I get an opportunity of sending it. Since I last wrote home, a week last Sunday, we have seen what we call hard times, on half rations, with forced marches day and night, have fought the rebs and whiped them. Last Thursday just at dark we crossed the river a little below the fortifications at Grand Gulf with the expectations of a quiet nights sleep, for we had been marching nearly all the time for the last three days, in that our