Saturday, 5th–No news of importance. The weather continues hot and sultry. Many more of the sick are being sent home on furloughs or taken to hospitals. Although half of our number are sick with the chills and fever, yet a kind Providence has certainly favored the soldiers of the Union armies in this region; for [...]
Friday, 4th–The weather today is intensely hot. Those who are not sick spent the day in washing their clothing. Over half of the boys in our regiment are sick with the fever and ague, all because of the very poor water we had to drink while on the march, the weather being very hot and [...]
Thursday, 3d–The boats arrived this morning and we embarked immediately, pushing out at 10 o’clock for Vicksburg. The Eleventh and the Sixteenth Iowa were on board the “Samuel Gotz.” We were crowded on the boat, and the heat of the sun was frightful. We reached Vicksburg at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and disembarking, marched [...]
Wednesday, 2d–We left Bayou Mason at midnight and marched through to the river, eighteen miles, without stopping, reaching Goodrich’s Landing at 7 o’clock this morning. General Stephenson planned our march so that we should pass through that terrible ten miles of hemp at night, thus avoiding the heat.[1] Our brigade led in the march all [...]
Tuesday, 1st–We lay here at Bayou Mason all day to rest. The boys are very tired after marching for twelve days, with the weather much of the time so fearfully hot. Then on account of the bad water, exposure and fatigue, a large number are sick, many of them not able to carry their accouterments, [...]
Monday, 31st–We left Heff river and marched through to Bayou Mason, eighteen miles, and stopped for the night. While marching today some of us heard the report of a rifle, and we learned that a member of the Seventh Missouri had committed suicide by shooting himself. He stepped out of rank into the brush and [...]
Sunday, 30th–We left Oak Ridge and covering but ten miles went into bivouac on the banks of Heff river. Some of the men on account of the bad water and climate are suffering with the chills and fever. The boys were raiding all the sweet potato patches they found along the way, today.
Saturday, 29th–We had a heavy rain during the night and the day opened cloudy and dismal. Our entire expedition started on the return journey for Vicksburg. We covered twenty-six miles and camped for the night on Oak Ridge. Some of the men had found too much of the “Southern bay rum,” and imbibing quite freely, [...]
Friday, 28th–We had company inspection this morning and then started out for Monroe, expecting to have a little fight in taking the town. But upon reaching the place we found that the rebels had withdrawn, leaving at 6 o’clock in the morning. General Logan’s Division entered the town at 10 o’clock, while our brigade had [...]
Thursday, 27th–Leaving our Oak Ridge bivouac early this morning we journeyed fifteen miles more and stopped for the night on the banks of Bayou Said, only seven miles from Monroe, our destination. During the day we crossed another ridge known as Pine Ridge, which is eight miles across and about twenty feet above the surrounding [...]
Wednesday, 26th–Getting an early start again this morning, we covered sixteen miles and camped for the night on Oak Ridge. This ridge is on a dead level and only about twenty feet higher than the bottoms where the cypress grow so luxuriantly. It is covered with oak and fine large walnut, also magnolia and [...]
Tuesday, 25th–We took up our march at 4 o’clock this morning and journeyed seventeen miles, when we stopped for the night. Our brigade took the rear, the Eleventh Regiment acting as rear guard. The day’s march was through swamps and bayous and land heavily timbered. Now and then we noticed a field with a little [...]
Monday, 24th–Spending the night here we started early this morning and moved on to Bayou Mason only seven miles further on. Here we remained during the balance of the day and for the night. There being no bridge, we had to wade the bayou to enter the town. Our cavalry routed about one hundred and [...]
Sunday, 23d–Our expedition broke camp this morning and started for Monroe, Louisiana, on the Washita river, seventy-five miles northwest of Vicksburg. By 1 o’clock we had covered ten miles, in a burning hot sun,[1] without water to drink, and through neglected fields of hemp standing from ten to fifteen feet high. The cavalry went in [...]
Saturday, 22d–After an all night run, we landed this morning at daylight at Goodrich’s Landing, on the Louisiana side, from which place we marched two miles up the river and went into bivouac, where we remained all day. There were four brigades in the expedition, comprising about five thousand men, and commanded by Brigadier General [...]
Friday, 21st–We packed our knapsacks and started at 10 o’clock for the landing two miles above Vicksburg and a mile below our camp. Our regiment with the Thirteenth went on board the “Fanny Bell,” and at dark started up the river.
Thursday, 20th–It has rained most of the day. On dress parade this evening orders were read for the brigade to prepare to march in the morning with ten days’ rations and one hundred rounds of ammunition. The sick are to be left in camp.
Wednesday, 19th–A thunderstorm last night cooled the air some, though it is still extremely hot. There was a boat blown up this morning down at the wharf and thirty or forty lives were lost, mostly negroes. The boat was being loaded with ammunition and the explosion was caused by a negro’s dropping a box of [...]
Tuesday, 18th–We were relieved from picket this morning. It looks pretty bad in walking the streets of Vicksburg to see the destruction caused by our shells. Many buildings are completely demolished, while others have great holes made in their walls—I counted as high as ten holes in a wall. I noticed a shell lying in [...]
Monday, 17th–Our company went out on picket this morning. There is always danger of cavalry raids, particularly evenings. Some more of the sick boys were examined this morning by the doctor. The boys were hoping to get a sick furlough. There is some homesickness in the regiment, but a number will be made well by [...]
Sunday, 16th–We had regimental inspection this morning at 8 o’clock. The regiment showed itself in splendid order. A man from the Fifteenth Iowa was buried this morning, having died of fever.[1] Some of the sick boys of our regiment started home today on their furloughs. Mark Titus was the only one from our company, though [...]
Saturday, 15th–This is my birthday–twenty-one years old today. I was detailed to help dig a grave for the body of Rufus C. Walter, of Company G, who died last night. He had been wounded and lived here in camp in a hammock which was tied to trees, or to posts set in the ground when [...]
Friday, 14th–All is quiet. Orders came today to send all of the sick home on thirty-day furloughs.
Thursday, 13th–It is rumored that our brigade is to go to Natchez, Mississippi, in a few days, but we cannot tell whether it is true or not. I was on police duty today, for the first time, down in Vicksburg. There are more than a hundred men detailed each day to keep order in the [...]
Wednesday, 12th–We had a fearful windstorm today, though no rain. Everything in camp is moving along fine and the boys are quite cheerful. We have plenty of wood, canebrake and Spanish moss for our use and our camp is in good shape.