Special Orders No. 16, issued from headquarters Defences of New Orleans, January 15th, 1863, detailed Companies C and H for duty in the Department engineer service. The two companies made a skeleton battalion, under command of Senior-Captain Leonard, who, after reporting to Major D. C. Houston, chief-engineer Nineteenth Army Corps, for instructions, on the seventeenth marched them to Camp Parapet, three miles up river, with their camp equipage, and pitched tents upon a level piece of low, muddy land, formerly used as a burial place for soldiers. This Camp Parapet was so called because a large number of troops were in camp near earthworks thrown up a few miles above Carrollton. These works then consisted of a parapet and other fortifications on the east bank, between the river, the swamps and Lake Ponchartrain, with an abandoned Confederate redoubt upon the west bank, re-named Fort Banks.
The camp was moved to a fig grove January 21st, tents provided with floors, and here the battalion remained until relieved from detached duty, without suffering any inconvenience except, when a portion of camp was drowned out, February 15th, by a terrible thunder shower that forced men to seek shelter in barns not far away. Regular Sunday and monthly inspections were maintained, with an occasional drill. The inspections were thorough, as they should always be, and more drills would have been ordered had the details been less heavy. The companies suffered from a lack of commissioned officers. In Company C, Captain Leonard, as battalion commander, occupied the best quarters obtainable in the vicinity, and exercised command as such. Lieutenant White, absent on detached duty a greater part of the time, left but one company officer on duty, Lieutenant Sanderson. In Company H, Captain Bailey took things easy until placed in arrest April 16th, leaving Lieutenant Phillips the only company officer on duty; Lieutenant Gould was on detached service as an acting quartermaster.
There was little sickness among the men in this detachment during their stay at the Parapet. The position of their camp was more favorable for health than others at the post, with the additional good feature of being kept scrupulously neat; the prettiest camp at the post. On the extreme right of the earthworks, near the Jackson Railroad track, ground was so unhealthy it was nicknamed “Camp Death.” Here the One Hundred and Fifty-Sixth New York suffered severely from sickness. This ground, near the railroad, was also a risky place for the troops there stationed on account of shells exploding in the neighborhood, fired from the gunboats when practising to obtain a range of this road. All shells had time fuses and would explode high in air, but fragments occasionally fell where not wanted. On one occasion, March 31st, a shell from the Portsmouth went over the One Hundred and Fifty-Sixth New York camp to explode nearly half a mile away, as every one thought, yet a large fragment was flung into camp and took off the head of a Zouave, who did not dream his death was so near. At another time a shell in passing over Companies C and H camp prematurely exploded overhead; pieces were flung into camp, fortunately without injury to anybody.
Among the few inhabitants who lived near Camp Parapet must have been some treacherous, be-deviled secessionists. Ammunition was occasionally stolen, the empty boxes afterwards found in places where they had been thrown. An attempt was once made by them to cause a break in the levee above the fortifications, by removing pickets placed to keep the levee embankment from giving way. This attempt was discovered before any damage resulted, and guards were afterward placed upon the river banks to prevent other attempts of a like nature.
Private Charles E. Warren, who had been an apothecary clerk in Boston, was detailed by Captain Leonard to act as medical-officer for the two companies. Warren did not take the position from any love for the medical profession, but did so to advance his personal interest and comfort. He was a social, jolly, good fellow, with a certain amount of acquired knowledge how to use medicines, but had no diploma as a graduate from any medical institute authorizing him to assume the practice of medicine.
Other details from the enlisted men were made to serve in various capacities, viz.:
Sergeant Frederick C. Blanchard, Company C, acting adjutant.
Sergeant Edward P. Fiske, Company C, acting sergeant-major.
Sergeant Edward L. Jones, Company H, acting commissary-sergeant.
Sergeant Dennis A. O’Brien, Company H, wagon-master.