xt7vdn3zsz43 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7vdn3zsz43/data/mets.xml Farley, Edwin, 1842- 1918  books b92e601f37019182009 English Billings Printing Co. : Paducah, KY Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. United States. Army. Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, 8th (1861-1865) --History United States --History --Civil War, 1861-1865 --Regimental histories United States --History --Civil War, 1861-1865 --Personal narratives Experience of a soldier, 1861-1865 text Experience of a soldier, 1861-1865 1918 2009 true xt7vdn3zsz43 section xt7vdn3zsz43 
   1861 -1865

FARLEY 
    
    
    
    
    
   EXPERIENCE

OF A

SOLDI E R

1861-1865

FARLEY

PRINTED BY BILLINGS PRINTING CO.. PADUCAH. KY. 
   PREFACE.

I have often been asked, by friends, to write no. account of my experiences as a soldier, but not until requested by my Grand Army Post have I decided to do so. I first thought I would write but a short story of my entrance into the army, a green unsophisticated cpun-try boy but I was urged to go further.

I was born in Walworth County, in the TERRITORY of Wisconsin, August 28, 1842. Worked on a farm until I enrolled as a soldier, August 26, 1861, under Capt. A. E. Smith. Ten days later our squad joined Co. "K" 8th Wis. Infty. Received education in country schools, one year in academy. Served four years and five months in the army; engaged in cotton planting in Coahoma Co., Miss., 1866 and 1867; located in Paducah, Ky., February, 1868, where I have resided ever since; engaged in mercantile and manufacturing business; was Deputy U. S. Marshal 1875-8; appointed Collector of Internal Revenue Second District of Kentucky by President Arthur 1883; was appointed Postmaster at Paducah by President Harrison 1892; was elected State Treasurer of Kentucky 1907 and served four years, and was Department Commander G. A. R. Department of Kentucky 1914. I married a Kentucky lady   Miss Ella M. Nunn   in 1871 and we have raised a family of five children, two sons and three daughters, all well and prospering. I am fortunate in having preserved a great portion of my diary, which I kept during the war, and which aids me greatly in recalling incidents and dates.

I am now a happy old man "at peace with the world and the balance of mankind" and am glad that I lived at a time when I had an opportunity to be of service to my country.

E. FARLEY.

Paducah, Ky. Dec. 81, 1918. 
   CHAPTER ONE.

COMRADES:

I have read a good many stories of the many-experiences, hardships, discomforts and suffering of the soldier boys of '61-'65, so I thought I would write a few lines relating some of the jars and discomforts which overtook me during my four years and five months service in the federal army. What I write now only refers to my first fifteen months service, and I shall not, at this time mention the many engagements participated in and serious wounds received later on, nor do I write in a spirit of complaint, for as a boy approaching my nineteenth year, in 1861, I entered the army with the thought and belief that war was surely what General Sherman afterwards defined it to be, and therefore was ready and prepared in mind for whatever might come. 
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EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

Our regiment left Madison, Wis., on the 12th day of October, 1861, and was sent to help "save Missouri." Went to St. Louis by rail and on the trip was fed on strictly army rations, hardtack (and never from that day to this have I ever seen such HARD hardtack) sow belly, coffee and plenty of salt and pepper, which we did not need. From St. Louis we were at once ordered down the Iron Mountain railroad to Pilot Knob, on which place rebel General Jeff Thompson, with a large force, was said to be advancing.

We were somewhat delayed by the enemy tearing up the road in front of us, burning bridges, firing on us from ambush and otherwise harassing us young soft shelled soldiers who had never had but one regimental drill, and whose officers were entirely inexperienced and nearly as green as the men.

My first night on picket guard was on this trip, near DeSoto( where the rebels stopped us by burning a railroad bridge. A Captain, a Lieutenant, two Sergeants and several Corporals escorted 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

3

the guards and assigned them to their respective posts around the picket line. It was a gray, dark night, and as none of us were familiar with the country or roads, we just followed the hog paths and by chance I was placed a hundred and fifty yards further out than any of the other pickets, where I remained from eight o'clock at night until seven o'clock the next morning without relief, the officers explaining that they had forgotten where I "was at." The enemy was hovering around us and we were told we might expect an attack at any time.

Scared beyond expression, I stood that lonely watch all night, without relief until morning. Visions of an approaching enemy constantly rose before me, and every crack of a limb or twitter of a night prowling varmint excited me in the belief that I would be attacked by the horrible enemy in a few minutes. It was the first time I ever remained alone in the dark, and under the circumstances, it was neither reassuring or comfortable. Other picket guards around the line seemed to share my feeling, for there were many shots fired 
   4 EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

by them during the night, and I myself fired one shot at an approaching enemy (?) which suddenly emerged from the thick underbrush about thirty yards in my front and was coming straight towards me. If it had been our Colonel who thus approached my post at that time I fear I would have made a mistake, for I have no recollection of challenging his advance before firing. In the morning we found a white faced calf laying dead in the path. I often thought of this incident in my soldier life after I became a commissioned officer, and always with a shudder and a smile.

We beat Gen. Thompson to Pilot Knob but learned next day that he was concentrating 4,000 men at Fredericktown, twenty miles distant, with the intention of swooping down upon us within a few days and, in the language of the verbrose Gen. Thompson himself, "wipe us off the face of the sacred soil of Missouri." But Col. Carlin, commanding post at Pilot Knob, and Col. Plummer, ding post  at  Cape  Girardeau, decreed 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

5

otherwise and by forced march on the night of October 20th, 1861, reached Fredericktown next morning with about 3,000 men. A battle was fought which lasted several hours when, leaving Col. Lowe, second in command, and fifty or sixty of his men dead on the field, Gen. Thompson and his army retreated, scattering in all directions and never after did he assemble as many men as he had that day.

We lost some men but we were learning military and learning it fast and it was probably worth the price. Thompson never bothered us any more. I am quite sure the reason we won this victory was because the enemy was as green and inexperienced as we were, and perhaps more so for they failed to take advantage of their own chosen ground to fight us.

We campaigned in Southeastern Missouri the balance of the year, and in the spring of '62, with Gen. Pope's command, took New Madrid and on April 8th captured Island No. 10 with 6,000 pris- 
   6

EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

oners and had the honor of having "New Madrid" and "Island No. 10" inscribed on our banner by order of Gen. Pope, so you see we were growing in military society.

Constant marching and campaigning through the intolerable mud and swamps of Southeastern Missouri at this cold and rainy season of the year caused much sickness in the regiment, fully one-third of the officers and men being in hospitals or unfit for duty; even Old Abe (the live eagle we carried through the war) would often make known his weariness and discomfort by his low mutterings of "eagle talk" which we all understood. I was fortunate in retaining my health and although worn to a frazzle, was always able to take my place in the ranks and drag myself through the mud with the other boys. We were properly called mud ducks.

After the capture of Island No. 10, Gen. Pope with his army embarked on transports and went up the river to join Gen. Grant's army at Shiloh, 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

7

with the view of proceeding against Gen. Beauregard's Confederate army, which, after its defeat at Shiloh, was now concentrated at Corinth where it was reorganizing and receiving recruits from all parts of the south.

We reached Shiloh on the morning of April 22nd and went into camp about four miles above, near Hamburg, Tenn. We found Gen. Halleck in command, Gen. Grant having been relieved of command because, I suppose, he had been winning too many victories   Ft. Henry, Ft. Donaldson, Shiloh, etc.

Gen. Pope's forces led the advance of the army towards Corinth and we all expected to go forth and offer battle, but to our chagrin, Gen. Halleck, for some reason, decreed otherwise anl commenced a kind of seige at long range, of the Confederate forces nearly twenty miles away. We were permitted to advance less than a mile a day on an average, and the enemy, emboldened by our timidity, would send detachments to attack our ad- 
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EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

vance forces every day, thus keeping us under constant fire for more than thirty days. We all felt that we could press for battle at any time, defeat and perhaps destroy Bouregard's army. We entered Corinth on the morning of May 30th and found the enemy had evacuated the night before carrying with them all their supplies, leaving notes of derision behind. Gen. Halleck was a good man, a splendid theoretic soldier, but he never fought a battle and seemed to fail to understand that long ranged sieges would not defeat an enemy. Gen. Grant was restored to command. Gen. Halleck was called to Washington and given another position and we went into camp at Clear Creek (a few miles south of Corinth, where we remained until the middle of August.

After our long and arduous campaign in Missouri, followed immediately by more than thirty days constant skirmishing in our advance on Cor-, inth, including the spirited fight at Farmington, Miss., this going into camp was a gracious relief affording the first rest since entering the service, 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

9

besides it gave us our first opportunity to drill and learn the possible evolutions of platoons, companies and regiments. Several of the members of our company (K. 8th Wis.) had by this time distinguished themselves in action and were marked for promotion; our Captain (W. P. Lyon) and our First Lieut. (A. E. Smith) already being promoted for gallantry, the former to Colonelcy of the 13th Wis. Infty, and the latter to Captaincy of Co. B. of our regiment vice Captain Conger resigned, so we now began to think we were "some soldiers."

On August 18th our Brigade   11 Mo., 26 and 47 111., 5 Minn., 8 Wis. Infty. and 2nd Iowa Battery   broke camp and started for Northern Alabama, passing through Iuka, Miss., reaching Tus-cumbia on the 22nd where we remained until the 31st, when we were ordered to proceed towards Decator, Ala., but on reaching Town Creek we received orders to return and join the main army near Corinth at once, as Confederate Gen. Price was advancing on Iuka and Corinth with a large 
   10 EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

force. We did not hesitate in retracing our steps and on the night of Sept. 12th reached Iuka and went into camp. It was a dark drizzly night. About 10 o'clock I was sent with three other men to guard a Railroad water tank on the M. & C. R. R. more than a mile from our camp. Our instructions were to see that the tank was kept full of water for an engine which was expected to come from Corinth in the morning to haul oul supplies from Iuka and keep them from falling in to the hands of the Confederates who were fast approaching. Nothing happened to disturb us during the night, but at dawn the next morning we heard shots fired along the picket line (which was between us and camp). At first we thought but little of this, but as a woodpecker began to beat reveille on the stump of an old cypress tree, which stood near by, and the sun began to smile upon the world in the eastern horizon, the firing became heavier, and realizing that the enemy was hovering about us, that it was the 13th day of the month and Friday, I decided to abandon our post, without orders, and take refuge in an abandoned 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER 11

log house which stood on a hill top near the railroad and about two hundred yards in our rear. While the boys were picking up their traps preparatory to moving, we were surprised by a full regiment, the 4th Miss. Cav. commanded by Col. James Gordon, which came sweeping down a road which cut us off from our command and circled around our lonely little post. We were captured. The enemy promptly relieved us of such things as suited their fancy, including our money, diaries, letters and photographs of our best girl, and hustled us off without breakfast to a point four or five miles south of Iuka where they had established a carrol for prisoners. We found several there.

The enemy had swept around our line, capturing nearly all our outposts and by noon there were twenty-four as sad faced and as broken hearted boys gathered together in that little improvised prison pen   sheltered by the trees and enclosed by a cordon of rebel soldiers with loaded guns and fixed bayonets   as could be found in this or any country. Had I been the only prison- 
   12 EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

er, I think I would have died of chagrin, but as there were boys from every regiment of the brigade, we gibed one another good naturedly, and concluded to make the best of it. I was just twenty years old, was trying to make a good soldier and I felt humiliated to think I should be taken prisoner; it nearly killed me. I felt that I would rather have been shot.

We learned in the evening that the enemy had captured Iuka with all the stores, driving our brigade in the direction of Corinth. The soldiers guarding us were a very clever set of men and with the exception of robbing us, treated us quite civilly. As darkness set in, we built a fire to give us light and to afford a little warmth (we now had no blankets or overcoats) and we made known to our captors that we had nothing to eat for the last twenty-four hours and were beginning to be hungry.

We were informed that rations were scarce but that they would try to get us something to eat. We waited impatiently, nursing our appetite 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER 18

until nearly midnight when a wagon was driven up with six or eight bushels of green corn in it and a jolly Confederate soldier commenced shoveling it out and good naturedly calling "pigs, pigs, pigs." This was our supper, and let me inform you epicures, it was good.

The next morning the prisoners were marched into Iuka, and as the enemy had captured what stores there was there, we were furnished plenty to eat. Having fasted thirty-six hours, with the exception of one or two ears of corn to the "pig" some of the boys ate too ravenously and had to call in a rebel doctor to treat them for indigestion.

Early the next morning we were ordered out and with an escort of a company of cavalry    Baxter's Independent Scouts or Beauregard's Body Guard   commanded by a Lieutenant Hind-man, we started in a southerly direction and marched rapidly for about seven miles when we were permitted to halt a few minutes for rest. During this halt I made the acquaintance of Lieut. Hindman and found him to be a highly polished 
   14 EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

and good hearted gentleman. He told me in confidence that he was taking us to Tupelo, Miss., about sixty miles from Iuka, and he was informed a regiment of Federal cavalry was following him with a view of recapturing the prisoners, and to prevent this it would be necessary for us to march fast and long.

We did not stop again until eight o'colck at night when we were given some corn meal and a piece of bacon and told to prepare something to eat as quickly as possible.   Although the boys were very hungry, they were worn out, almost dead on their feet and the most of them fell to the ground and were asleep in three minutes. Horace Baker, my comrade who was captured with me, and myself, undertook to make a hoecake, but before we had a fire fairly started, the Lieutenant came to me smiling and said "Curly," he called me "Curly." "We must go again at once." I told him I thought he was trying to kill us by marching us to death and suggested that it would be more humane to stand us up and shoot us. He 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER 15

disavowed any intention to be cruel and said his scouts reported an enemy close on his rear and he must go, so we went.

We marched until about one o'clock in the morning when he said we were now out of the danger zone and we could rest. We filed into an old orchard and all fell to the ground and slept soundly until eight o'clock. We cooked some hoe-cake and rusty bacon, ate our breakfast and were on our way by ten o'clock. We now had but about twenty miles to go to reach Tupelo and Lieut. Hindman seemed glad to inform us we could take it more leisurely. We had to cross the Tombigbee river; near where we forded it, was a nice inviting pool of clear water. I requested the Lieut, to permit us to take a bath in the pool. After some persuasion and hesitation on his part he finally consented, and throwing around an ample guard, all the prisoners and half the escort plunged into the refreshing water. We reached Tupelo sometime after dark where Lieut. Hindman turned us over to another command and 
   16 EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

where we were to await a train to take us somewhere.

We were given a little corn bread and plenty of water for our supper and were then put on board an old passenger car, with eight guards to keep us in order, which was easily done, for the boys, worn out from their long forced march from Iuka, arranged places as best they could to lay down, and all were sound asleep in less than ten minutes. I awoke a little after sunrise, and to get a little fresh air (the car being closed with windows all down) I made my way to the front platform, stepping carefully over the boys, and asked permission of the guard to open the door so a little air might get in and thus save the tired sleeping soldiers from possible suffocation. I was fortunate in finding a big, stalwart good natured guard on duty; he had seen service in the field at Shiloh, Farmington and Corinth and had the heart of a soldier. He complied with my request, saying he wondered if some of the sleeping men were not already dead, 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER 17

Our car was standing on a siding at Meridian, Miss., and early risers were already beginning to asseble to see the carload of "nasty, thieving Yankee prisoners," which they heard were in town. The guard permitted me to stand on the platform with him and the eyes of all the gathering crowd were turned on me, and the injectives hurled at me were too numerous and varied to undertake to enumerate.

Among others who came "to see" was a large portly man, fashionably dressed and riding a fine black horse; he wore gold spectacles, carried a gold headed cane and appeared to be a man of prominence. He dismounted, waddled up to the platform of the car on which the guard and myself were standing and after discharging a bundle of oaths   too vicious to repeat   told the guard he had a burning desire to kill one blankety-blank-Yank at least, and that if he would let him kill me, he would give him the best "nigger" on his place. The guard, who had said nothing up to this time exploded, and in no complimentary manner 
   18 EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

ordered the pompous man away, telling him if he wanted to kill "Yanks" to join Gen. Price's army and there he would find plenty opportunities to satisfy his desire. The man said in reply "you don't know who you are talking to; I shall report you at once." The guard replied by telling him to go. "I shall report YOU for trying to bribe me to permit you to do a dastardly act." He left.

Our guard was changed and the new sentinel ordered me to go inside the car. We lay at Meridian until late in the afternoon, and all this time without a bite to eat since we left Tupelo.

About four or five o'clock in the evening our car was picked up by a train going west (we never knew where we were going). We reached Jackson, Miss., about ten or eleven o'clock and were ordered out. We thought we would certainly be given something to eat here, but instead we were marched up to the state house where Gen. Tiglman, commander of the post, was waiting to receive us. He was informed that we had nothing to eat for more than twenty-four hours and 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER 19

should have some rations. He said he would have some furnished, and ordered us taken to the penitentiary which was in the city, and locked in a room, with ample guard on the outside and there kept until morning. An hour after the barred door was locked upon us, some one came, had the door opened and shoved into the dark room (it was now after midnight) a sack full of something which we were told was rations. It proved to be nothing but dry cornmeal and as we had no water nor fire, we could not prepare it for eating in any way, so we were forced to fast some longer. I do not doubt that Gen. Tiglman intended that we be furnished with something we could eat, but this is the way his order was carelessly (or maybe maliciously) obeyed, and we went hungry.

CHAPTER 2.

In the morning we were taken out of the penitentiary, marched to and lined up on the railroad 
   20 EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

platform to await a train to take us to Vicksburg. They gave us no breakfast and we were ravenously hungry. Just across the railroad, and fronting the platform on which we were standing, was a large hotel, the "Confederate House," which fronted the railroad. It was early morning, and while I had discovered that the air of Jackson was permeated with hatred and disgust for all "Yanks," I thought, possibly, if I could see the landlord and tell him of my suffering for want of food, that I might be able to get a bite of something to eat. As the boarders would come out of the dining room of the hotel to the front porch wiping their lips and smacking their mouths, it excited my appetite to a point of desperation, so I asked the officer of the guard to permit one of his men to go with me to the hotel to try to get a little something to eat. The officer laughed but complied with my request and I went over to the hotel.   Just as I got there, the proprietor, a

Mr.-, came out.  I saluted him and asked

if he was the proprietor. He cast a side look of hatred and venom at me, which pierced to the 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER 21

bone, and said, "Yes, why?" I told him how long it had been since I had anything to eat, that I was nearly starved and begged him to give me a bite of something, no matter how common, for which I would gladly pay him fifty cents in silver, all my friends (?) left on me. Then he turned on me and while I thought my pompous friend at Meridian had the most perfect vocabulary of oaths and invectives, he could not hold a candle to the landlord. He told me he had plenty to eat but not a bite for me or any other blankety-blank Yanks; he would feed it to the hogs or dogs first. So I still went hungry.

I learned in after years that my Meridian friend died of apoplexy and the landlord lost his hotel by fire, without insurance.

When we remember that Mississippi was the home of Jefferson Davis, President of the so-called Confederacy, and that all the citizens of the State were worked up to the highest pitch of rebellion and determination to try to disrupt the 
   22 EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

Federal Government, we may be a little lenient with the few overly zealous secessionists (stay ai homes generally) who thought the only way they could show their loyalty to the Confederacy was by being abusive, unreasonable and cruel    But I was hungry and did not entertain a good feeling for the landlord nor did I admire conditions surrounding me.

Our train came, and we left Jackson about 9 o'clock, arriving at Vicksburg a little before noon. We were marched up to the county jail and ushered through a strong iron gate with double locks and set in a rock wall ten feet high which surrounded the jail, so now we were incarcerated within the walls of Warren County bastile. In Mississippi penitentiary last night and in Warren County jail today! And for what? For being loyal to our government and protecting "Old Glory" from insult and disgrace.

But we were lucky, for we were given some cornbread, without salt, and some Texas beef for 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER 23

dinner, and we were happy. The cornbread disappeared like soft snow in the hot sun, but the beef kept us chewing the balance of the day. It was tough.

We were paroled within a week, went to St. Louis by boat, there to remain in parole camp until exchanged January 1st, 1863, when we rejoined our respective regiments.

By request I will continue a narrative of my subsequent services as a soldier.

My experience as prisoner of war was most trying and disagreeable. While I was blessed with a good constitution, was young and vigorous, I feel sure that had I remained a captive for any considerable length of time, with the treatment I had already received, I could not have survived. When we reached parole camp at St. Louis, with my clothing literally filled with vermin and my stomach entirely empty, I found that I weighed only one hundred and twenty pounds, having lost thirteen pounds during my short cap- 
   24 EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

tivity. I burned all my clothing at once, having procured a new outfit from the quartermaster at St. Louis, began filling the cavity within me with good U. S. army rations, and soon felt myself again.

There were several hundred paroled prisoners in camp at St. Louis awaiting exchange, and while we fared very well there, the boys were all very anxious and somewhat impatient to return to their respective regiments. To me the days seemed as weeks and the weeks as months until on January 1,1863, we received the glad tidings that a general exchange had been negotiated and we were all ordered to return to our commands. We found our regiment (8 Wis. Infty.) at La Grange, Tenn., and our boys of the command greeted our return with a hearty good will, our own company (K) giving us a regular reception. Oven Old Abe, our regimental live eagle, which we carried through the war, flapped his wings and chirped HIS words of greeting which could not be misunderstood. I was glad to be back with the boys 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER 25

again. My companions, Horace Baker, I. N. Felch, and Wm. Whonn, who were captured with me, entertained and amused the boys for many days after our return relating our surprise and capture, and graphically describing our experience while prisoners in the hands of the enemy.

Our regiment campaigned through West Tennessee and North Mississippi for two months when on March 13 we embarged on Steamer Empress at Memphis and started down the Mississippi River.

We knew that Gen. Grant was planning to attack and capture Vicksburg, a rebel stronghold on the Mississippi River, the only principal obstruction to the navigation of said river since Island No. 10 was captured, and as it was strongly fortified and heavily guarded by a large rebel force under Gen. Pemberton, we realized that there was some strenuous work and hard fighting in store for us.

Gen. Sherman, with more than thirty thou^ sand men, had gone into the Yazoo river Decern- 
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EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

ber previous, and attacked Vicksburg from the direction of Chicasaw Bayou, but was repulsed with considerable loss. The problem was to gain a footing on land, in the rear of Vicksburg where Gen. Grant might assemble his army to attack the city from that direction. This, under the circumstances, was a difficult proposition. Gen. Grant had resolved to open the Mississippi so we knew we had a job before us.

We proceeded down the Mississippi River to a point six or eight miles below Helena, Ark., and landed, on the 15th, on an island just opposite the mouth of Yazoo Pass where we remained until the 29th, while the general in command was exploring the Pass with the view of finding an eligible place to land and organize his forces, but the country being low and swampy, he abandoned the project and we, on board the Steamer Ben Franklin (the balance of the army on many other transports) went down the river to Young's Point, La., a point a few miles above Vicksburg, and just opposite the mouth of Yazoo River, ar- 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER 27

riving at this place April 1. During the month of April our whole brigade, which was composed of the 11 Mo., 47 111., 5 Minn, and 8 Wis., was employed on fatigue duty most of the time   digging on a canal across the bend of the river through which to try to run boats and get them below Vicksburg; building roads; performing guard duty and finally preparing boats to run the blockade. The canal project proved a failure, so Gen. Grant ordered five or six gunboats and three transports to run the blockade. Volunteers were called for to accompany the boats, and the night of the 16th was named as the time. I, being young and venturesome, volunteered, but was rejected because I did not appear to be as strong as others. There was no lack of volunteers. The night was dark and cloudy and when the flotilla, with all lights bedimmed, turned the bend approaching Vicksburg, and was finally discovered by the sentry there, fifty cannons opened fire upon it and for an hour kept up the most intense racket I ever heard. I remained up nearly all night, or until the firing ceased, with other boys who failed to get to go 
   28 EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER

with the blockade runners, for we were all interested in the enterprise. In the morning we learned that all the boats but one had passed the batteries safely, or with little damage. One of the transports was sunk and three or four men lost.

Six days later, six other steamboats and several barges, heavily loaded with supplies, also ran the blockade, with a loss of one steamer and two or three barges.

Gen. Grant ordered his army to move from Young's Point, go down the river on Louisiana side to a point below Grand Gulf where he was now prepared to transfer it across the river to high ground on the Mississippi side. On May 2 our regiment broke camp and marched sixty-two miles through swamps, to Hard Times Landing where the gunboat Louisville took us across.

We left our knapsacks and tents at Young's Point and went in light marching order, taking nothing but a blanket and rubber poncho with us. One wagon accompanied us to carry rations and 
   EXPERIENCE OF A SOLDIER 29

a few camp kettles in which to make coffee when we stopped for the night. I never saw my knapsack again and therefore lost all my change of underwear, my letters and the many little articles which contribute to the comfort of a soldier.

Our brigade was attached to the 15th army corps, commanded by Gen. Sherman, who was left to bring up the rear, and who was instructed to make feints upon the enemies works at Hayne's Bluff for the purpose of deceiving them and holding their army from going south along the east bank of the Mississippi River to interfere with the crossing of our army from the Louisiana side to or near Grand Gulf, and for further purpose of guarding our flank and rear from any attack that might be made by Gen. Marmaduke or any Confederate force west of the Mississippi River. We reached Hard Times Landing on the evening of the 7th and by daylight the next morning were all across.

Two other corps, Gens. McClernand and Mc- 
   30 EXPERIENCE OP A SOLDIER

Pherson commanding, had preceeded us, and now the whole army was on dry land where we could, if not prevented, march to the rear of Vicksburg and attack that stronghold.

And now that Gen. Grant had "crossed the Rubicon" and was in the heart of the enemy's country, with Grand Gulf, Vicksburg and Hayne's Bluff strongly fortified and well protected by ample forces under Gen. Pemberton, and Gen. Johnson with a large Confederate force at Jackson, forty-five miles east of Vicksburg   an enemy of more than fifty thousand confronting him ready to give battle on their own chosen ground    and separated from his own base of supplies, found it necessary to move fast, strike hard and never let the enem