Saturday, 14th–A heavy rain all night stopped our digging for a time, and the fatigue party did not begin work on the canal until 1 o’clock in the afternoon. It is terribly muddy and the water hinders our digging; we wheeled out more water than mud. The following strange epitaph I noticed on a tombstone in a cemetery located in a grove near the town of Lake Providence:.
“Remember man, as you pass by,
As you are now, so once was I,
As I now am, so you must be,
Prepare for death and follow me.”