Source: Goyne, Minetta Altgelt. Lone Star and Double Eagle; Texas Christian University Press; 1982, pp. 135-136.
Used by permission.
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Rudolf to family

Camp near Opelousas

20 June 1864

…I wrote you on the fifteenth but could not send the letter because suddenly we got orders to get ready for a big jayhawkers hunt. We marched away on the sixteenth and only returned home again last evening. That was the second time that we went away for that purpose. The first time we caught thirteen men who, in order to escape conscription, had withdrawn into the forest. The last time we did not get anybody though. We did come upon three real robbers, but they rode horses that were so good we couldn't catch up with them on our skinny and broken-down animals. People of this sort make the roads unsafe. They have already murdered a lot of our men in cold blood. Sometimes they do play quite daring tricks too. Once, while the Yankees were retreating from Alexandria, we had to march ahead a long stretch in the night, in order to attack their column in the flank the next day. A mile in front of us there was another regiment of our brigade on the same road. They sent five men with the canteens from one company into a house that stood close by, in order to fill them with water. The jayhawkers must have noticed that, because they captured the five so fast that neither we nor the regiment they belonged to became aware of it. Later one of the men successfully got back to his regiment, and he told what had become of his comrades. The next day they came and got themselves General Debray's horse during the fighting, and he had to do his best to get away on foot so that they would not take him captive too. Most jayhawkers probably have left with the Yankees. But there are still enough of them here to cause a lot of destruction of private property. We will leave here during the next few days. It is said that we will go to the vicinity of Alexandria, where it is supposed to be easier to provide the fodder for the horses. I would be quite glad of it. First of all, I would get fun out of seeing once more the places where we fought, and then it is also very much to be desired that something be done for the horses, because they are very thin and weak. Pabieco had held up quite well. He was thin and bruised when he arrived. We could not spare the horses when we were after the jayhawkers. We had to swim and chase alternately, and still it was almost always possible for me to be among the first people… I think… I will be able to manage until I get back to you sometime, where I hope that Ben will have recovered. Now farewell for today, all. I am, as always, your loyal son and brother Rudolf Coreth.

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