The Scourge of Whisky and Loose Women at Memphis-- Part 1: "Did Not Take Them Long to Raise Hell Generally"

From the Mash Notes site.

I came across another letter written by George Hovey Cadman.  This one was a year earlier in 1863 and written from Memphis, Tennessee.  His 39th Ohio had just arrived at Memphis and he described what happened next.

George Cadman was a very literate man, even more so as an enlisted man than some officers.

Letter to his wife dated May 1863.

"When we arrived in Memphis our trouble began.  Women and whisky are plentiful here, and the men had been so long debarred from both that it did not take them long to raise Hell generally.

"Never did I see such a scene before in my life, and hope to God I never  may again for some days, in spite of all the Endeavors of the Colonel (Noyes?) who did his utmost to preserve discipline, the Camp was a wild scene of Debauchery."

The 39th Came to Party.   --Old Secesh