Sunday, 15th–We had another all night rain, which again stopped work on the canal. We moved our tents a little distance, to get out of the mud, going onto higher ground, closer to the lake. We are still in the plantation lawn, however, which comprises about twenty acres and has a great variety of shrubbery [...]
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 [...]
Friday, 13th–The mail today brought me a letter from Jason Sparks and the monotony of camp duties was broken with good news from home. The weather is quite warm and we no longer need fires in our tents. Things are growing very fast and the farmers in this locality are planting their corn.
Thursday, 12th–A dreadful rain during the night flooded our beautiful camp on Sparrow’s lawn. The ground being so nearly level, it will take some time for the water to run off. It cleared off in the afternoon and it is nice and warm. The grass and trees are beginning to look green; peach trees are [...]
Wednesday,11th–A large detail from our brigade began work on the canal from the Mississippi river to Lake Providence. About three hundred negroes are working on it. The canal is being cut twenty rods wide and when completed will be three-quarters of a mile long with a fall of twenty feet. I paid out thirty cents [...]
Tuesday, 10th–This is a clear, warm day. We disembarked early this morning and marching out about one mile from the river to Sparrow’s plantation, we pitched our tents on the large lawn of the plantation house, bordering the lake. Mr. Sparrow, the owner, is a congressman in the rebel congress, and he and his family [...]
Monday, 9th–We left for Lake Providence, seventy-five miles above Vicksburg, at 10 o’clock this morning, and reached our destination at dark. There were six transports and one gunboat in our fleet. We found the First Brigade of our division already here and at work cutting the levee.
Sunday, 8th–Orders came for the detail of men to quit the work of repairing the levee and for our entire division immediately to embark on the transports. The Eleventh and Thirteenth Regiments went on board the “Empress” and loaded all their supplies after night; at the last moment the Tenth Ohio was ordered to take [...]
Saturday, 7th–While waiting for orders, I went down to a daguerreotype gallery[1] and had my likeness taken. The water is still rising and the report in camp is that our division is to proceed up the river to Lake Providence, Louisiana, and cut the levee to let the water of the Mississippi through to the [...]
Friday, 6th–We hear that we are to move up the river to an island where General McPherson’s command is. About one hundred transports with troops aboard are tied up along the levee on the Louisiana side, awaiting orders to go up the river, while still others are being loaded. The plan is to go into [...]
Thursday, 5th–Weather pleasant. I was detailed to go out on picket, but the order was countermanded. There is some talk of our leaving the place. It is reported in camp that on account of the flood the work on the canal had to be given up, and that an effort would be made to turn [...]
Wednesday, 4th–Rain all day, and the whole country is being flooded over. General Grant has sent five or six expeditions along the river to find some way to move the army on to higher ground in the rear of Vicksburg, and also to solve the problem of getting our fleet and gunboats past the rebels’ [...]
Tuesday, 3d–Cloudy and cold. The levee is the only thing of interest and importance. We are still at work on the levee, but the water is almost to the top now, and it is breaking at so many points that the land on both sides of the river is being flooded. Our camps will have [...]
Monday, 2d–An exciting time down at Vicksburg last night was reported in camp this morning. One of our gunboats ran the blockade and while passing their batteries, the rebels fired exactly one hundred and thirty shots at her, but did not hurt her. Our gunboats blew up one of the rebels’ steamers which was tied [...]
Sunday, 1st–We had an all day rain and the river is rising; the bottom land on the east side of the river is already under water. It came my turn to go on fatigue today. A detail of four hundred men was again sent down to work on the break in the levee. Our chaplain [...]
Saturday, 31st–A scouting party of about two hundred men mounted on horses and mules, and carrying one piece of light artillery, came upon a rebel camp some eighteen miles out and engaged in a fierce fight. After standing their ground for two hours the rebels left for the tall timber. They left their supplies to [...]
Friday, 30th–Everything is quiet today. It came my turn to go on duty. Another gunboat came down the river today. General McArthur moved his headquarters from the boat, lying here in the river, out into a plantation house nearby. Things are very expensive here; butter is fifty cents a pound and cheese is forty cents.
Thursday, 29th–We have plenty of wood now. At about 2 o’clock this afternoon a brisk fire opened between our men and the rebels. We have not yet heard what was the cause of it.[1] A scouting party seventeen miles out from the city had a skirmish with the rebel cavalry, but there were no losses [...]
Wednesday, 28th–We had ten or twelve teams at work all day hauling wood to the boats. I worked till noon with the detail of men hauling wood and loading the transports, while the other detail was on picket. In the afternoon our detail was on picket and the others completed the loading. We were called [...]
Tuesday, 27th–Wood for fuel is becoming very scarce in camp, and also on the transports. The Thirteenth Iowa, with thirty of us from my regiment, were detailed to go with the transports up the river for wood. We reached the woodyard about thirty miles up the river at dark and Company C of the Thirteenth [...]
Monday, 26th–Today I was one of a detail of two thousand men sent down the river a few miles to repair the break in the levee on the west bank of the river. The break is two hundred feet wide and the water rushes through with terrible force. I was glad when the order came [...]
Sunday, 25th–We moved up the river today about a mile and disembarked on the Louisiana side, going into camp right on the bank. We are from ten to fifteen feet below the water in the river, while the levee is twenty-five or thirty feet higher than our camp. Company E was to go on picket, [...]
Saturday, 24th–We had some rain early this morning, followed by a heavy fog which lasted all day. Boats loaded with troops are constantly arriving and landing at different points along the river where the men are going into camp. Some of our boys are quite sick, the result of using the river water on the [...]
Friday, 23d–We continued our journey again at daylight and by evening reached a point about ten miles above Vicksburg, where we drove our fleet ashore and remained on the boats all night. Fully seventy-five boats loaded with troops are assembled here, while the fleet of gunboats is lying in the river two miles below us. [...]
Thursday, 22d–Today we enjoyed the first warm, clear day for more than two weeks, the snow having entirely disappeared. Our fleet continued all day without a stop. We met the White river expedition returning to Memphis from Napoleon, Arkansas. We tied up for the night about one hundred miles above Vicksburg.