April 25. Buck took Fox, Boggs and I outside the pickets and we went up about two miles to a fine plantation where we got a lot of butter, a knife, some forks, a chicken, and all the sweet milk we could drink. We found the overseer’s account book hidden in an old chicken coop with some other things. At night the chickens, goats, sheep and hogs came in by wholesale, together with a lot of beeves. The object of our expedition was to obtain Negroes and supplies.
April 26. Sunday. Twenty-one years old today. How my mind carries me back to those good old times when I used to welcome this day of all others, when my sister, aunts, and grandpa composed the family circle. What a change! That good old man whose memory I revere and cherish, is gone, and the old place is sold. On picket today. Mosquitoes are very thick.
April 27. It rained this forenoon. We started back about 1 o’clock and arrived at Lake Providence. Found orders there awaiting us, to leave in the morning for Vicksburg. I took a good wash and went to bed. The river is rising very fast. The Captain commanding the expedition did not want us to take off our live stock, but the boys threw them overboard and secured them as they swam ashore.
April 29. Wednesday. Making out muster rolls today. We had dress parade at 5 o’clock. The “Edward Walsh� came up this morning for the 95th and us. We are to return to Stevenson’s brigade. Stevenson is now Brigadier-General. We expect warm work shortly. The river is falling rapidly. It is a number of feet below where it was in the spring when we first came down here. I was walking on the bank this evening when whom should I see but Coon, the little Negro who used to cook for Capt. Williamson. A new iron clad boat and hospital boat went down the river yesterday. I wrote two letters today, one to Rosalie, and one to George Butterfield.
April 30. Thursday. Major Peats returned last evening and at 8 o’clock this morning, mustered us for pay, after which we boarded the steamer “Edward Walsh� for Milliken’s Bend. Most of the boys bought what was called blackberry jam, but it was merely liquor in cans and created a drunken row in which some were hurt, one officer and two privates. Arrived at the Bend before dark. The troops have all left, except the convalescents. They took one tent to each company and loaded the train with commissaries, hard-tack, pork, coffee, salt and sugar. I took a towel, one pair of socks, my oilcloth and blanket. This evening we heard heavy and continued firing up the Yazoo, supposed to be Sherman attacking Hams Bluffs.
May 1. Friday. Up at 4, and started on our march at daylight, accompanied by the 95th and a big train of commissaries. A fine road has been made by Bush’s engineering corps. We passed through Richmond, a small country town. It is a beautiful country and the planters are wealthy. The plantations range from six hundred to twenty-four hundred acres. The land is low and level and the soil is rich. The roads have been very bad, but are better now. We made a hard march of nineteen miles.
May 2. Marched fifteen miles, very tired. We passed McArthur’s division this forenoon. Weather awfully hot.
May 3. Started at 5 o’clock, as usual. The country through which we are now passing is the most beautiful I have ever seen. The plantation mansions are grand, and the grounds and outbuildings are fitted up in fine style. Each plantation has a splendid steam gin, and some have steam cane-mills as well. The mills must have cost between ten and twenty, possibly thirty thousand dollars. The inhabitants have but recently left. They put in their corn crops, and some cotton, before going. The corn is nearly two feet in height. The boys have destroyed a number of gins and a good deal of furniture. The roads have mostly followed the banks of bayous, and alligators, turtles and snakes abound. The boys have shot a number of alligators. We marched twenty miles today. I became overheated and completely exhausted.
May 4. We started early and after marching eight miles, arrived at the landing called “Hard Times,� where we took the steamer “Silver Wave.� We crossed the river and landed four miles below at Grand Gulf. There is a high promontory and a range of bluffs here which the Rebels had forfeited with nine guns. It commanded the entrance to the Black River as well as the Mississippi. It was a fort of nature’s own construction. We have had a fatiguing march and a good many have given out. Grant’s headquarters are eighteen miles back. We hear that Logan’s division is in advance and has done good fighting, also that many prisoners have been taken. I should like to hear from home very much just now.
May 5. Gov. Yates and Adjt. Gen. Thomas are here. We are detailed to remain here and do fatigue duty. The burning barges loaded with provisions came down this evening. The town of Grand Gulf is entirely destroyed. I didn’t know there had been a town there until told.