JANUARY 3d.—To-day we have a dispatch from Vicksburg stating that the enemy had re-embarked, leaving their intrenching instruments, etc., apparently abandoning the purpose of assaulting the city. This is certainly good news. Gen. Stuart did not cross the Potomac, as reported in the Northern press, but, doubtless, the report produced a prodigious panic among the [...]

January 2d. Late last night, our second night out, pickets began firing. We were called out and soon had line formed. The supposed enemy proved to be Union scouts with orders for the Colonel to return to Baltimore. The enemy did not come into Maryland. The command was complimented for the way it turned out [...]

JANUARY 2d.—A dispatch from Gov. Harris gives some additional particulars of the battle near Murfreesborough, Tenn. He says the enemy was driven back six miles, losing four generals killed and three captured, and that we destroyed $2,000,000 commissary and other stores. But still we have no account of what was done yesterday on the “extreme [...]

January 1st. When off picket duty try to keep comfortable by the picket fires and chopping wood for the large camp fire just outside the church. No place in the church for fires.

New Orleans, January 1st, 1863. Nothing of importance has occurred this day.

January 1st, Thursday, 1863. 1863! Why I have hardly become accustomed to writing ’62 yet! Where has this year gone? With all its troubles and anxieties, it is the shortest I ever spent! ’61 and ’62 together would hardly seem three hundred and sixty-five days to me. Well, let time fly. Every hour brings us [...]

JANUARY 1st, 1863.—This first day of the year dawned in gloom, but the sun, like the sun of Austerlitz, soon beamed forth in great splendor upon a people radiant with smiles and exalted to the empyrean. A letter from Gen. H. Marshall informed the government that Gen. Floyd had seized slaves in Kentucky and refused [...]

December 31st. We passed a very uncomfortable night in old dirty box cars. After a ride of sixty miles we reached a station known as Monrovia very early in the morning, just before daylight. Pickets were soon posted on the roads crossing the railroad. A sharp lookout was kept. After daylight we took possession of [...]

  DECEMBER 31st.—There were more skirmishes near Vicksburg yesterday; and although several of the Louisiana regiments are said to have immortalized themselves (having lost only two or three men each), I suppose nothing decisive was accomplished. I have not implicit faith in Western dispatches; they are too often exaggerations. And we have nothing further from [...]

December 30th. Marching orders. Reported the rebel cavalry leader J. E. B. Stuart about to raid into Maryland along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The three companies of our regiment and other troops here are suddenly ordered out on the line of the B. & O. R. R. Left camp tonight in a warm rain [...]

Provost Marshal’s Office, Waterford, Miss., December 30, 1862. Fifteen days outside the world and still we live. No papers of later date than the 15th inst. have reached us, and ’twill be at least five days’ move before we can hope to see one. In that time there have been some six or eight fights [...]

DECEMBER 30th.—We have another crisis. Dispatches from Murfreesborough state the hostile armies are facing each other, and not a mile apart; the skirmishing increases, and a decisive battle may occur at any moment. From Vicksburg we have no further intelligence; but from the Rappahannock we learn that both artillery and infantry were distinctly heard yesterday [...]

DECEMBER 29TH.–We have a dispatch from Vicksburg at last. The enemy, 25,000 strong, were repulsed three times yesterday, and finally driven back seven miles, to their gun-boats. It was no battle, for our loss was only 30, and that of the enemy 400. It will be fought to-day, probably. It is said an attempt will [...]

DECEMBER 28th.—We have no news to-day from the West. If the great battle has been fought at Vicksburg, we ought to know it to-day or to-morrow; and if the enemy be beaten, it should be decisive of the war. It would be worse than madness to continue the contest for the Union. Several fine brass [...]

DECEMBER 27th.—The successes in the West have been confirmed. Morgan captured 2000 and Van Dorn 1500 prisoners at Holly Springs. They likewise destroyed a large amount of stores. We have intelligence of a great armament, under Gen. Sherman, sailing from Memphis against Vicksburg. At the last accounts the President was at Vicksburg; and he may [...]

Friday, December 26th, 1862. Monday Dr. Woods and Mr. Van Ingen stopped, just from their regiment in Kentucky and on their way home, and I begged so hard to see the Doctor, and promised so faithfully to retire if I suffered too much, that Mrs. Badger yielded, like an angel, and I carried my point. [...]

DECEMBER 26th.—We have no news to-day—not even a rumor. We are ready for anything that may come. No doubt the assailants of Mobile, Wilmington, or Charleston, will meet with determined resistance. The President will be in Richmond about the first day of January. I saw a man who traveled with him in Alabama. Vicksburg, I [...]

DECEMBER 25th, CHRISTMAS DAY.—Northern papers show that there is much distraction in the North; that both Seward and Chase, who had resigned their positions, were with difficulty persuaded to resume them. This news, coupled with the recent victory, and some reported successes in the West (Van Dorn’s capture of Holly Springs), produces some effect on [...]

December 24th. To-day Major-General Butler and Brigadier-General Shepley visited the ship. At eleven A. M., General Butler left the ship in the barge, and went on board the steamer S. R. Spaulding, which is to convey him North. Saluted him with thirteen guns; also cheered ship. The Spaulding went down the river as soon as [...]

DECEMBER 24th.—The Louisville Journal says the defeat of Burnside is “sickening,” and that this sad condition of affairs cannot be borne long. It is said that Confederate bonds are bringing quite as much in New York as in Richmond; and that the bonds of Southern men are freely discounted in the North. These, if true, [...]

Provost Marshal’s Office, Waterford, Miss., December 23, 1862. Suspect this will be my last from this country. Where the army is going I know not, but the divisions which have been in front are now filing past us, faces northward. The movement commencing at the time of the raid on Holly Springs, gives it the [...]

DECEMBER 23d.—he battle of Fredericksburg is still the topic, or the wonder, and it transpired more than nine days ago. It will have its page in history, and be read by school-boys a thousand years hence. The New York Times exclaims, “God help us—for man cannot.” This is another war sheet. The Tribune is bewildered, [...]

DECEMBER 22d.—We shall never arrive at the correct amount of casualties at the battle of Fredericksburg. The Enquirer to-day indicates that our loss in killed, wounded, and missing (prisoners), amounted to nearly 4000. On the other hand, some of the Federal journals hint that their loss was 25,000. Gen. Armstrong (Confederate), it is said, counted [...]

DECEMBER 21st, SUNDAY.—Nothing, yet, has been done by the immense Federal fleet of iron-clad gun-boats which were to devastate our coast this winter. But the winter is not over yet, and I apprehend something will be attempted. However, we shall make a heroic defense of every point assailed. I omitted to state, in connection with [...]