February 26th. It was a very rainy day and we stayed in our tents and cleaned our muskets. Mortar and gunboats are daily arriving at this port. We have six of the former and four or five of the latter. The Confederate gunboats are continually making reconnoissance up the river and occasionally give Port Hudson a taste of their shells. But most of them give her a wide berth and I think they had better. By the way I want to tell you how hard it was for us poor boys to get reading matter. When the New York papers arrived they commanded 25 and 30 cents apiece. You can see that we fellows had to go without, for we had not received a cent of pay since arriving here. You can't imagine what it is to be cut off from all communication from the outer world for a week or ten days at a time as we were and during that interval hear nothing but discouraging rumors and false reports circulated by the Rebels.
February 27th. Came off guard in a soaking rain, in a very cross state of mind, but being neither sugar nor salt didn't melt away; but I felt that I could stand it awhile longer if our hard-tack and salt horse held out as well as it had and I felt it would, for I noticed that it stood by pretty well.
Having a prisoner consigned to my tender mercy to be fed on the bread of affliction and waters of repentance until further orders, this same prisoner did at dead hour of night break from the guard-house and abscond to his quarters, did there fare sumptuously on hard-tack and salt-horse. This coming to the ears of the colonel he did get angry with the officer of the guard and sending this same officer of the guard a pair of hand-cuffs, did order to arrest this delinquent and confine him in close quarters and in this performance a spirited encounter did thereupon take place in which the offender did get upset in one corner and the officer very nearly in the other; this criminal being finally secured did create such a row he was forced to be gagged and bound hand and foot.
That the weather hath proved very unpleasant for some time raining hard most of the time when your humble servant did hope to go round and view the pretty maidens of Baton Rouge and now that our three commissioned officers not knowing better than to all fall sick at once and go to the hospital, it bringeth us many cares when we had to have Lieutenant Goodell of Company F detailed to take command of our company and that the paymaster, (that much desired individual), hath again disappointed us and we are here as usual without a cent to buy anything for our comfort or luxury of any kind.
March 7th. However, this camp life was not to last. Admiral Farragut wished to run his fleet past the batteries of Port Hudson so that we might intercept the Red River traffic and cooperate with General Grant at Vicksburg. Therefore he asked General Banks to make a demonstration behind the fortress. This movement was intended to divert the attention of the enemy. General Banks at once put his army in motion, and our army, with a squadron of cavalry and a battery of regular artillery men, commenced the advance.
March 9th. Had marching orders this morning and struck our tents about seven o'clock. And we have been here all day waiting for orders to start.
March 10th. We had marching orders this morning and left camp about five o'clock; when we got outside the picket lines, our regiment was detailed to do skirmish duty and we immediately deployed on both sides of the road and into the woods, when we came to the remnants of a bridge that had been destroyed by the Confederates. We halted here and our regiment was sent out on picket duty for the night.
March 11th. This morning we had a sharp skirmish with the enemy. One man was killed in Company I. His name was Rockwell.
March 12th. Last night one-half of our regiment stood by our arms for fear of an attack. Sergeant Benjamin Turner and myself were up together on the same post. Our army at this time was within cannon shot of the Confederate works, but they could not get their guns up in time to be of any service. We were witnesses of a terrible scene, at 1:20 A.M. Two rockets burst into the air and in an instant all the guns of the fortress lit up the darkness with the flash of their firing. The fleet replied and until half past one, the roar of one hundred and fifty guns was incessant. To add terror to the awful scene, the U.S. Frigate Mississippi, which had grounded, was set on fire to save her from capture. She was soon wrapped in flames and lighted up the sky for miles around. This good old gunboat which had been in so many battles went up with a terrific explosion. This desperate enterprise consisted of four ships, and three gunboats, the latter being lashed to the port side of the ships. But only the Hartford, which flew the Admiral's dauntless blue, and her consort, the little Albatross, succeeded in running past the batteries. The other ships were disabled by the enemy's fire and dropped down stream. The Mississippi, which had no consort, grounded and to save the lives of her men was abandoned and fired.
March 15th. We started at two o'clock on our return march for Baton Rouge. When we had been on our way a short time, a hard thunder shower came up, and it rained hard until we halted for camp about eight miles from Baton Rouge. It was a wet, muddy place, and we named it Camp Misery. It was very dark and it continued to rain at times during all that long dreary night. Our quartermaster, John Ives, furnished us with coffee which he brought from Baton Rouge. I think that we must have had it about every hour during the night.