One hot morning, April 21st, 1864, the boys moved down to the St. John's river. Companies A, B, C, D, E and F under Col. Brown, embarked upon one boat for Fernandina, and Co. G, H, I and K under Col. Carmichael, on another boat, for Picolata twenty-five miles up the river.
With Col. Brown went the state colors and the band. With the Picolata detachment was the beautiful flag presented the regiment by the ladies of Cortland.
When the two boats swung out into the stream the boys cheered, and moisture gathered in some eyes, for it was the parting of a family. Then the band struck up a lively tune, and a bend in the river intervened, drawing the attention of Co. G to the subject of torpedoes. The gunboats and other boats, most of them, were provided each with a torpedo-rake at the bows, nevertheless there was great uncertainty in the air as well as in the dark colored water upon which they were riding. At the wide water some distance above Jacksonville, lay two large side-wheel steamers, sunk by torpedoes. On one of these boats a large number of colored troops perished. The trip was not entirely comfortable and Co. G was too intently listening, to note many really novel and entertaining features of this first excursion on the upper waters. There was danger, as afterwards proved, as a steamer was sunk near Jacksonville shortly after. So when Picolata was reached the boys were not sorry to step on dry land.
The 157th boys relieved a detachment of colored troops, pitched their tents under the trees and softened their beds with gray moss.
Duty at Picolata was picketing. Men were sent up the river to Orange Mills and to other points. At night a picket boat lay in the river below the post. Really, the Picolata station was an outpost of St. Augustine some twelve or fourteen miles distant. It was a crossing point on the St. John's.
The river is sluggish and water coming from many swamps is not wholesome. For a few days the men drank river water, then barrels were filled and brought into camp from springs outside the lines and drinking from the river was prohibited. Dr. Crawe, to whom the matter was referred, decided the water of the St. John's was well-fitted for breeding alligators, but not wholesome as a beverage for men.
As an additional safeguard, a small stockade was erected in the rear of the camp, armed with two small brass pieces which had been captured at Pilatka, a few months previous. To man those guns men were detailed from the post and drilled by an artilleryman.
On the 27th of April, Gen. Birney came up the river with a colored regiment and two steamers. Companies G, H, and K were ordered to draw fourteen days' rations and to be supplied with sixty rounds of cartridges, all of which was promptly done and the colonel and his three companies embarked on the small steamer, Harriet Weed. Then, convoyed by the gunboat Ottawa the expedition moved up the river. The gunboat stopped opposite Pilatka—not an inhabitant was in sight—and the huge amidships gun bore threatening upon the small city. Leaving the Ottawa, the other steamers passed up the River to Welaka, where Co. G was hurried ashore and thrown out as skirmishers, while the other troops were rapidly landing and getting into line. With a guide, the 157th in the advance, the column proceeded up the river. It was a dark night, the deep foliage along the roadside added to the gloom.
Soon after dark the boys reached a house. For some reason Col. Carmichael suspected a rebel was hidden about the premises. A search was made and he was found hiding under the house. When the man was brought forth, his family made pitiful appeals, to which the colonel kindly replied, assuring them the union troops would take good care of Mr. Shook, who was blacksmith for the troop called Steven's cavalry. And so the unfortunate man was marched away from his weeping family, a prisoner of war.
Gen. Birney halted the column near old Fort Gates (a relic of the Seminole war) and the boys laid down behind their stacked arms. They had been asleep but a little while when a gun was fired, then another, and more.