Note: A member of the State Guards sent to Breathitt County from Louisville to stop the Little-Strong feud shared a letter with readers of the Louisville Evening Post on January 7, 1879.

Breathitt.

Hunting With the Sheriff

Carrying Coals to Jackson

Correspondence of The Evening Post

Camp Taylor, Jackson, January 7, 1879.

It has been bitterly cold here, but it seems to be different from that we have at home. We run around without any extra wraps and do not feel the cold at all. When we go on guard we throw the cape of our overcoats over our heads, tie them around our necks with a handkerchief, and are as warm as toast.

Saturday, the sheriff told Captain Taylor that he wanted a detail to meet his posse with Jason Little, and that he would like them to start about eight o'clock. The captain made out a detail and had us all ready to start at that time, but the sheriff was not ready with his horses, and we waited all day in our leggings, overcoats, and other things, until five o'clock. When we went out to get on them we found that he did not have enough horses, and I was the unfortunate one who was left. The party got back yesterday morning with Jason Little. He is the best looking of all the prisoners I have seen; really a fine looking man. The boys said they had a rough time of it, but had good eating and good beds. The cavalry got here Saturday evening at four o'clock, and went off Monday morning early in two squads, one in one direction and one in another, to be gone about ten days; where, I do not know.

The people up here are the most ignorant I ever saw. They think we are one company of Confederate soldiers (gray cloth), and one company of Federal soldiers (blue cloth). I do not know who they think the cavalry, with blue and red, are. Down in the courtroom the other day one of our boys was eating an orange. One of the men from the country come up and asked him what is that he was eating. He told him it was an orange. He said, "Is that an orange? Wall, I have hearn tell of them, but I never seed one before. What does it taste like, anything like apples?" "No, it tastes very good, but nothing like an apple," said the soldier. "Could you sell a feller one?" "No, but I will see if I can get you one." He gave him one, and he put ut in his pocket to show as a curiosity, I suppose. You may talk about your two weeks' sleighing, but no one at home ever had such a sleigh ride as some of us had this evening. Lieut. Swigert asked some of us to go up the river and get a load of coal. Three of us got in a sleigh drawn by two mules. We drove down to the river, and then went up the stream for three miles amid the wildest scenery I ever saw, with mountains on all sides. Several times we passed mountain streams, with a fall of from ten to 15 feet, frozen solid three and four feet wide. We loaded the sleigh with about 25 bushels of coal, and then drove back. We got along very well, without even cracking the ice, and had no trouble until we started up the bank, when we found we would have to take off a good part of our load and help the mules pull it up an almost perpendicular hill. When we got to the top, though the thermometer was below zero, we were bathed in perspiration. But I have discovered a new remedy for cold in the head. When I started I had a wretched cold, but when I returned it had disappeared. If, therefore, you have a cold, go out and saw a cord of wood, or carry in a load of coal, and "no cure, no pay."

When we got back to camp there was a call for volunteers to load a wagon with wood that had been cut. We went about a mile up the river and saw that the boys had cut down a tree about 75 feet high; it had fallen on the river, but the ice was so thick that it did not even crack. We had to carry it up about 50 feet to the road; the hill was so steep that we had to climb up sideways and hold on to small trees and bushes, and we got another dose of cold cure. The boys have done nothing but eat since the boxes come. We get up lunches at the shortest notice, and we get up daisy lunches too.

We are all kept in splendid health, some have gained ten pounds since leaving home. The boys are happy tonight, because the captain told them they need not do kitchen duty any more. The Negro man that came up with the cavalry is in the kitchen, and so relieves us from the most disagreeable duty we had. It was fearful to have 50 tin plates to wash, all covered with grease and dirt; forks, knives, spoons, and cups in like condition. I could not stand drinking my coffee out of a tin cup any longer, and so bought a china mug, paying 35 cents for it; worth at home ten cents.

One of our boys was very much mortified in seeing in The Post of the 3rd, the article on concealed deadly weapons, the foundation of it he sent as a "gag" to his brother, and there is not a word of truth in it. There has been found only one pistol since we commenced searching the people as they come into the courtroom. There have been a good many found guilty of carrying them, and the judge gives ten days in jail and fines them $10. The judge goes along in the slowest way imaginable, just as if we had nothing to do but wait on him.

January 8, 7 a. m.

Another of those sudden changes. Last night, at bed time, it was bitterly cold; the thermometer was zero at 12 o'clock. It then turned much warmer, and has been raining ever since. The ground is now covered with mud, slush, and sleet a foot deep.

--W.T.K.