During the night the rebels had concentrated a large force with the expectation of a general fight the next morning. But at daybreak when they heard the noise of Sherman’s batteries at Raymond, they came down on us like demons. The bullets flew thick and fast but the most of them went too high as we were under the hill.
As we had only a small detachment against the main rebel army, we were ordered to fall in line and pull out on double quick time.
I will relate a little circumstance which took place while we were in this critical position. In forming our lines we were ordered to left wheel into line. One of our old comrades by the name of John Lochner, who was a very clumsy Dutchman, slipped on a pile of rails and peeled all of the skin off of half of his nose. He was standing there cursing in Dutch and the Captain seeing him with the blood running down his face, yelled out, “Lochner, if you are shot, go to the ambulance.”
“Shoot, hell Ciptain, shoot mit a rail in de nose.” he replied. But he stayed in his place in the ranks anyway.
We crossed the creek and were soon out of the range of the rebels’ bullets. A very heavy rain set in making a hard muddy march. Seeing the rebels did not follow us, we crossed over Baker’s Creek on a bridge and then set the bridge on fire. We went into camp in the bottom.
That night we tore down some cotton pens and each fellow had a good, soft, cotton bed. But just as a person thinks that he is getting some great pleasure for himself, death and destruction come along and cut off his happiness. About 10 o’clock that night, we were almost washed out of that camp by a flood. We waded to the hills in water that was sometimes waist deep.
On the 14th, we marched through Raymond. Here we passed over the battleground. It bore the marks of a hard fought battle. In the fight Sherman had taken several prisoners, but he had lost 500 men, killed and wounded. He had gone on to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi.
We, tired and hungry, marched on through rain and mud. At the end of twelve miles, we went into camp we knew not where. But one thing we did know. That was that we were tolerably well mixed up with a large rebel army and would have to untangle soon.
On the morning of the 15th, we began marching at six o’clock, and after a distance of five miles had been traveled we came to a little town on the Jackson and Vicksburg Railroad, by the name of Clinton. The distance to Jackson from here was eighteen miles. We received a dispatch from General Sherman stating that he had captured the town of Jackson, captured several prisoners, and put General Johnson’s rebel army to flight.
Our army consisting of Hovey’s and Logan’s divisions turned back toward Vicksburg. We were foraging along the road as many of the boys had empty haversacks, and not a morsel to eat. I jumped over into a garden and grabbed a few onions. The other boys followed my example and soon the garden was cleaned up. I had procured a small amount of Orleans molasses and when we stopped for a short rest I made my breakfast on onions and molasses. I will always remember that I enjoyed that breakfast more than any that I ever ate.