Jan. 14. I came off guard this morning. It rained very hard all the latter part of the night. Another boat load of troops came down last night, making five or six in all. They are from the Kansas Valley Division of Fremont’s old forces.
Jan. 15. About six inches of snow fell last night and it has snowed all day. The citizens say it is the heaviest storm they have seen in a number of years. By night it was about ten inches deep. The paymaster paid off all but our company today.
Jan. 16. We were paid off this morning, after which there was a general settling up of accounts. I drew $41.00; $25.00 advance bounty, one month’s advance pay, and $3.00 premium for re-enlisting. I expressed $25.00 home. It is very cold this morning, not more than five or six degrees above zero. Towards noon the report came that we were to be relieved. We were almost frozen, having no chance to fire up and keep warm. These are the dark days of a soldier’s experience.
Jan. 17. I was on guard supernumerary in the daytime and stood beyond Wolf Creek at night. Towards night the sergeant-major came along with instructions to be ready at 6:30 o’clock in the morning to go aboard the transports for down the river.
Jan. 18. We were up early and had our things packed at 8 o’clock, fell into ranks and marched down to the wharf and on board the “Superior,� a fine river boat. The 11th Ill., 17th Ill., and part of the 16th Wisconsin regiments are on our boat. It took all day to load and at night we went up to the coal yard just above town to coal up. Abe and I made our bed down on the top of the hurricane deck. About midnight it began to sleet and rain, and before morning our blankets were completely soaked. It was about as disagreeable a night as I ever spent.
Jan. 19. Cold, rainy and windy. We lay here all day coaling up, and suffered with the cold. Most of the boys kept warm by drinking whisky. Nearly all have their canteens full. We have details patrolling the town, picking up the stragglers. Still rainy and disagreeable. At 1:30 the boats backed off and started down the river. We stopped a few minutes at the forts, two or three miles below the town. There are fifteen boats in the fleet, among the principal ones are the “Nettie Dean,� “Silver Moon,� “Minnehaha,� “Platte Valley,� “Superior,� “Maria Denning,� “Sunnyside,� “St. Louis,� “Gate City,� “Mary Forsythe,� “City of Madison,� “Arago,� and “Belle Reora.� Our regiment lost about fifty men at Memphis, three from our company. At dark we tied up to the Arkansas shore. It was dreary and cold but I went on shore on purpose to put my foot on Arkansas soil. We set our pickets and stayed all night. Abe Van Auken and I slept under Jim Mitchell’s bunk, the same as the night before and slept fine.
Jan. 21. The boat shoved off at daylight and started down at 10 o’clock. We arrived at Helena, a small town, where we stopped about three hours, and then went on down the river. It is thickly timbered on both sides most of the way. There are a few farm houses scattered along. At sundown we tied up to the Arkansas shore just forty miles above Napoleon, at the mouth of the Arkansas river. As soon as we halted the “Silver Moon� played several tunes on her calliope. I went back to a little town of Nig quarters just over the levee, about one-half a mile from the river and tried to get something to eat, but they had nothing to sell or give. Everything was eaten up and the levees were all breaking away and they could not repair them as the able bodied had run away. Most of the Whites that are not in the Rebel service have left. One of our boats was fired on today. We passed Napoleon about 9 o’clock. At sundown we tied up at the Mississippi shore, eighty miles above the mouth of the Yazoo, and opposite the state of Mississippi.
Jan. 23. We started at sunrise as on the preceding morning. The wind blew quite strong, making it difficult for some of the smaller boats to keep up. When we were within a few miles of the Yazoo, the flagship “Platte Valley� halted and gave us the signal to close up. We closed up in regular order and about 3 o’clock came in sight of a fleet of eighty transports and gunboats at the mouth of the Yazoo. We halted about one mile above them, and twelve miles from Vicksburg by water, or eighty by the short cut on the Louisiana side. The troops here tell us our boys are working on the Farragut’s canal and are to have it finished in a few days. We slept in the boat last night, Abe and I in our old place. The country for over a hundred miles above here is quite thickly settled by wealthy planters. On some of the plantations the Negro quarters form quite a town. The trees on the shore are covered with a long vine-like growth called Spanish moss. It is light green in color, and gives an appearance of being dead and covered with icycles.
Jan. 24. Rained all day; slept in the boat last night.
Jan. 25. Sunday. The regiment was formed early this morning and we moved back out of the levee into camp. The river is rising, it is on a level with our camp. It is warm and pleasant, a real spring day. There was heavy firing this evening down the river. I saw the “Chillicothe� tonight. There were four men detailed to go down to the ditch tomorrow.