Michigan in the Civil War
Shaw, John
Four letters, dated Jan. 22, 1862 to March 6, 1863. In a letter of May 10, 1862, from Camp Stanton, Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., he describes the siege of Corinth, Miss.
One letter (March 6, 1863) from Lake Providence, La., concerns the proposed opening of a levee to "let a current from the Mississippi into the lake so that boats can run from the river through the lake into Baxter Bayou, then into Bayou Mason, then into Black River, then into Red River, and finally into the Mississippi. Our present employment is to clear the Bayou of logs and brush."
He also tells of men from the Engineers Regiment, lost in the Bayou; and of finding 359 bales of cotton, marked C.S.A. Their team was hauling it in for Uncle Sam. The 8th Illinois boys also found nine bales concealed in a cane brake.
Shaw was from Marshall, Ill., and served in the 30th Illinois Infantry, Company F.