I. D. Affleck Letter to Parents

Nibletts Bluff
Sunday April 6th/'62

Dear Mother & Father: I mailed a letter to you yesterday evening after I got to this place. I told you I expected to get of[f] on Tuesday but I think we will get off this evening. I have entered into a big speculation since I came here. I bought a pony for forty dollars. I would not have done it but I could do no better, they charge[d] thirty dollars on the stage for Perry so I thought I would run the risk—Andrew Harris rode him through New Iberia. I told him to sell him for any price over fifteen dollars, and if he can do that I will be making five dollars, but as this is my first speculation in horse flesh, I hope it will turn out well. We will use Andrew Harrises transportation ticket for Perry—the horse is worth the thirty-five dollars and I know I can get fifteen for him—.

Perry has behaved himself better than I expected—Coming up the river [he] took care of a mans horse for fifty cents, and when we got here the fellow started off, but Perry ran after him and made him pay—sine he has been here, he has been waiting on the Hotel. I dont know what he expects to get. I told him he might make as much pocket money as he liked so [long as] he looked after my things at the same time—.

To day is Sunday, but the people here carry on just as they did yesterday—grog shops open and men drunk, there is no minister and I dont suppose there is a bible in the place—At the Hotel here they have the best eating I have seen since I left home. We had coffee[,] mackerel[,] meat of different kinds[,] eggs and butter for breakfast—There is a great deal of difference between it, and the steam boat fair—I will not close this letter untill after I get to New Orleans, but will add to it every day, after to morrow that is if I get off, because I cant write in the stage—

[I. D. Affleck]

Affleck, Isaac D., "With Terry's Texas Rangers: The Letters of Dunbar Affleck," ed. by Robert W. Williams and Ralph A. Wooster, Civil War History, Vol. 9, Sept. 1963, pp. 299-319.