...y night and day, in a hot climate, exposure to all sorts of weather, to diseases and, worst of all, to the gibes of many Northern papers that came to them saying all their suffering was in vain, that Vicksburg would never be taken, were at last at an end and the Union sure to be saved. Bowen was received by General A. J. Smith, and asked to see me. I had been a neighbor of Bowen's in Missouri, and kne...