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May 29th. The cessation of hostilities on both sides seems to have, in part, taken place, and our forecastle is not crowded with officers and blue jackets, like on the two previous days, straining their eyes almost out of their sockets in their anxiety to see where our shells and those of our armies fell in the rebels’ works, and what execution they do. Oh, the excitement caused by seeing two parties striving for the mastery! I presume that the almost abandonment of the siege to-day is for good reasons,—probably to rest and recover strength for an early renewal of the assault, and this time with a larger force, or else for the purpose of burying their dead, and giving the enemy an opportunity to care for theirs, the performance of which is a sacred duty, and so held by all civilized nations.