SCENES ENROUTE.
IT was May 7, 1863 when Company B, 113th Illinois Vol. Infantry, to which I belonged, started from Milliken's Bend, La., with the balance of Grant's army for the rear of Vicksburg. That day we marched 14 miles and at night camped on a beautiful plantation and procured raw cotton from a nearby gin to sleep on.
By noon of the 8th we had reached the banks of Woody Bayou and halted there for dinner. That night we had arrived at the plantation of Confederate General Fiske and appropriated some of his fresh beef for supper. We made 19 miles that day.
The 9th we pursued our march along Roundaway Bayou through a beautiful fertile country covered with vast fields of corn and other crops, and splendidly built up. We crossed some streams upon pontoon bridges, and saw our first alligators in that bayou. We also saw scattered along the roadside many dead horses and mules, and passed the smoking ruins of many plantation buildings. We ate our dinner on the grounds of Confederate Judge Perkins. We passed through magnolia groves in full bloom, and along miles of blossoming rose hedge; beautiful and fragrant beyond description. At night we arrived at Lake St. Joseph and camped on its shores. All along our route the houses were deserted by all whites and able bodied colored people, only the sick, the aged and decrepit remained.
On the 10th we continued our march along the shores of Lake St. Joseph. Out on the surface of the lake numerous old gray-backed alligators lay sleeping, and ever and anon a musket would crack and one of those old gators would clap his hand on his side and go out of sight with a splash. A number of dead gators with bullet holes in their bodies had floated ashore. Today we passed immense fields of grain, one corn field comprising 1,400 acres; and also passed the smoking ruins of plantation houses more frequently. At 4 o'clock we got to Hard Times Landing, on the Mississippi river, opposite Grand Gulf and encamped for the night.
The 11th until 4 o'clock we laid off waiting for ferryage across the river and while some went fishing, others spent the time in any amusement or recreation they chose, but at that hour a gunboat arrived and we fell in and went on board of gunboat Louisville and were ferried across to Grand Gulf, where we went into camp with our brigade at the foot of the high bluff. The camp was full of happy contrabands who patted juba and danced nearly all night to the music of a cane instrument unlike any other musical instrument I ever saw.
At an early hour on the 12th we marched away over the hills for Rocky Springs. This country was rough and sterile and not nearly as productive as Louisiana. At the end of 18 miles we went into camp for the night in a beautiful grove on a hill close to a spring of pure, cold water. We killed some sheep and chickens for supper, but where they came from only the Lord and some of our boys knew.
The 13th we continued our march through Rocky Springs, across Big and Little Sandy creeks, and through a vastly finer country than yesterday. We arrived at the town of Cayuga that night and made our quarters in a church, and when the church bell rang furiously about midnight, we were told No. 10 wanted the Corporal of the guard.
The 14th we got a very early start but it soon began to rain and very soon we were wading in red sticky mud. We ate our dinner, well sheltered from the rain, in another country church, and at night we got quarters in a deserted plantation house. There we got supper and made our coffee in an old fashioned fireplace. We also, at least two of us, slept on a bedstead like white folks that night, but the bed bugs perforated us numerously. We were then 30 miles from Jackson and 14 miles from the advance of Grant's army. During the night the enemy molested our pickets and we got out to the tune of the long roll, but no blood was shed.
The 15th we continued our march to Raymond, arriving there at 2 o'clock p. m. There we halted an hour and visited our wounded friends and acquaintances of the 20th Illinois, then at that point, who had been wounded that day in the battle of Raymond, after which we pushed on 8 miles farther to Clinton and made our camp in the college grounds on the hill. At Clinton we found and paroled a large number of rebel sick in hospitals. Our boys visited the sick and wounded rebels in these hospitals and gave them crackers, tobacco and coffee or any little delicacies they happened to have, the same as they would have treated their own comrades, and many a poor sick Johnnie's eyes grew moist in those rebel hospitals because of the kindness of the Yanks to them that day.
The 16th we remained in camp at Clinton until noon, and then in compliance with orders, when Steel's division came through from Jackson, we fell into his line of march and marched away towards Boulton, and camped that night within a mile of that town. I desire to mention here that in the early morning today General Grant with a few mounted attendants went through Clinton at a rapid pace towards Black river or Champion Hills.
The 17th we proceeded towards Black river with Steel's division, passed through Boulton at 10 a. m., and shoved so close to a body of the enemy that our commander threw us into line of battle with ambulances close on our heels and trains trailing in the rear. But a few scattering shots resulted, however, and we arrived at Black river at 7 p. m., and there rejoined our brigade. We crossed Black river on a pontoon bridge, proceeded 2 miles farther towards Vicksburg and camped in the woods by the roadside.
Early the 18th we resumed our march for Vicksburg, 24 miles away, and when within 4 miles of said city we rubbed against a rebel force, and in line of battle pushed them gently back to their works, behind which they disappeared. We then went into camp on one of the walnut hills behind our heavy picket line. And what a noisy night was that, my countrymen! The pickets on both sides kept up a steady fusilade throughout the night. I undertook to pool my blankets with our Major (Williams) that night, and we made our bed on the exposed slope of the hill. Hardly had we get cleverly stretched out for a snoose when a rebel bullet struck the cold clammy earth just about three-fourths of an inch northeast of the lobe of my left ear. Some Mississippi soil was precipitated into my face thereby. I called the major's attention to the fact and proposed a change of base to the other slope of the hill about 10 rods away. The major made light of my proposition and said, "Lie still and go to sleep and you won't hear 'em strike." I waited a few minutes longer until a few more bullet chugs smote upon my ear, when I got up hastily and with my blanket went and lodged on the other slope of the hill. I'm no coward, but I didn't want to be accidentally killed without knowing something about it.