The Equinox Wrapper

THE EQUINOX WRAPFERVCliffHudder Sept. 21 Somewhere in Nth Georgia. Sir: I was there at the death ofyour dead boy Clinch and though I did not see his killing, me and your dead boy killed for 2 days here in Nth Georgia, but your Clinch Uved only 1 and 1 half days of it, him denouncing the while till he met his end. During this time I saw face to face our state's Major-General John Bell Hood—that was the 2nd day— he faced me and spoke: LOOKABOUT, COG, THATIS MYMACHINEYOU SPIN INSIDE SEE HOW MUCH EQUALITY CAN YOU FIND HOW MUCH BALANCE YOU SPECK, SIR, YOU CANNOT BALANCE YOUR OWN SELF, WHY CAN YOU NOT BE MORE LIKE YOUR DEAD COMPANION THE VEXATIOUS CLINCH? I gave him a Yes, Sir, for I knew he was correct, it was like he wrote my Ufe on a grain. It was your dead boy, not me, who had the Brave Part of this campaign, I am nothing greater than the one who survived it, and I have him to thank for getting me through, and for that I am on hands and knees and also writing and sending this what little is left to. Reason we called your dead boy "Clinch" was when he saw something he wanted he would say: I am going to get that in my clinches— I believe his name was Michael. He was a Complete Man in all ways and would take no ridicule and you should be proud as it would be easy for him to do so looking as he did uproarious, your Clinch was smart and true and brave and his paleness of flesh and obese aspect * The manuscript of this document, dubbed by historians the "Equinox Wrapper" or "Chickamauga Letter," and now in my possession, exists on a sheet ofbrown craftpaper twenty-four inches in width and over five feet long. Judged from the hand-canceled Confederate postmark and address on its obverse comer, the paper roll was used as covering for a relatively small package mailed to Mr. Isaac Williamson of Beaumont, Texas, in the fall of 1863. The text is here presented as nearly as possible to the form in which it was written, although some emendations and spelling standardizations have been necessary for readability. Illegible portions are approximated in brackets. The name Henry Wallace (without any "O" or "Oldham") appears on rosters of H Company, 4th Regiment, Texas Brigade, Army of the Confederacy, throughout its existence , but the author (if in fact that was him) was not listed on muster rolls at the time the unit disbanded at Appomattox Courthouse, April 9, 1865. Mr. Wallace is otherwise unaccounted for in official records insofar as I can ascertain. The Missouri Review · 65 and the fact he come to only belly height of a normal man and his thick spectacles never kept him from being a complete package. Major-General John Bell Hood was our brigadier in Dumphries and with us in Eltham's and Fair Oaks and at Gaines' Mill and at Malvern Hill—both Clinch and me together served this Great Man—but we had not seen him in person a while and thought he was off mending his wounds and not on the field.2 When I come up on the general I was in a state of impressionability—this was on the 2nd day—and just how those stars on that officer's buttons shined, and the fall of sun at his light brown hair that [made him appear(?)] like Jesus and his beard was blond also like that of Jesus's, up on his costly-looking mare as he was, yet lounging against a tree like watching a parade though there was balls flying, he caused me to be ashamed and this has made me promise to write to you of your boy and his importance. I do not know if you are a little man, Sir, but Clinch of course was, (and would say of himself how he was shorter than a Pig's Kick), and on the night before our big work here we made a cold dunk in creek water to the armpits...