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regiment is very good. We are now living on corn dodger and sow belly If you send this to the ladies call the last word- side bacon. We have coffee but no sugar, no beans, rice, flour or hard-bread. We expect a train in from Springfield with provisions every day. We then shall have little more to eat. The boys go out eight or ten miles into the country & buy everything they can in the form of provisions. Almost every farmer here raises a small amount of sorghum. The boys all seem to be fond of it and roam the country in search of it. Yesterday I went out two or three miles and of course stopped at every house to inquire for Sorghum. The answer which I would get would sometimes be- "We had'nt got but a few, didnt raise many this year," or else "we hadnt got but a few made a [pourer?] and sold right smart." "Right smart chance" is a favorite phrase with old Missourians. In fact two things will convince me that a man is a Missourian to see him have butternut clothes on and hear him say "Right smart". These combined make unmistakable evidence that a man belongs to the rough country of Mo. If the children all live in their towns or counties this will be a good state for one to electioneer in twenty one years from now and perhaps I might say a good field for some bachelor hunting for a wife. Price & his band have stripped the country of everything for beast or man. Our teams have to fifteen or twenty miles after forage. Some of these foraging parties have been taken by the secesh; but none from our regiment It is almost impossible to get anything to eat here from the farmers.