At two o’clock in the evening we received marching orders to go to
the rear after Johnson’s and Breckenridge’s army. There was a routine
of work to do here, such as cleaning up and granting paroles to
prisoners, but we had troops enough to see after all of this.
On the morning of the 5th, we moved out to Black River, which was
twelve miles distant. We had some strong fortifications at this
place. We lay here until the morning of the 7th when we moved out in
the direction of Jackson.
We stopped at the battlefield of Champion Hill for an hour’s rest.
There was hardly a living tree on the field. Those fine, large
magnolias had been torn and shot up until the place looked like an
old deadening. One could see the dead leaves for miles. We found
several bodies off of which the rain had washed the dirt. Not much
pains were taken in burying the dead rebels, while we were at this
place.
We moved on twelve miles to Bolton’s Depot, and here ran into
Breckenridge’s rear. After a few shots had been fired from our
batteries the enemy fell back. We lay here until 5 p. m. on the 8th
when we moved out against the rebels. They contended for every foot
of ground. We drove them about six miles and then lay down for a
short sleep.
On the 9th we marched to Clinton. On the morning of the 10th we moved
out in the direction of Jackson. There was skirmishing all the way
but this did not annoy us very much for we were used to skirmishing.
We went into camp near where Sherman was forming his lines. The
rebels were keeping up a constant firing from their guns. Our cavalry
cut off a train of ammunition belonging to the rebels, and then they
blew up three carloads of their powder and fixed shell to keep us
from capturing it. This made a terrible explosion.
On the morning of the 11th, General Hovey’s division had orders to
take our position in the line of battle. Our regiment, the 24th
Indiana, went in advance. After a march of three miles we ran into a
body of rebels, posted in the edge of the timber, a mile from their
fortifications. Part of our battalion moved out through the timber
and looked for a road to move out and flank them. We drove their
pickets in and returned to regiment to await reinforcements.
Soon a battery came up and unlimbered. They fired several shots at
the rebels at the top of the hill. We then formed in line of battle
and had quite a skirmish before the rebels fell back. We moved up to
open field which was planted to corn, and just in good roasting ears.
We could see the enemy going in double quick time for their fort as
our batteries were pouring their shell into them. Our division moved
down near the railroad and halted. At 5 p. m. the rebels opened fire
on us with several large guns, making it pretty hot for us. This
firing lasted until night. The shells cut through all parts of our
lines. We lay here all night without any thing to eat and with no
protection from shot and shell, as this was a comparatively level
country.
On the morning of the 12th we again fell in line and moved up within
two hundred and fifty yards of their main fortification. It was built
of cotton bales and earth and made a strong fort. A deep ditch was on
the outside.
Here we had some sharp fighting. We were in some black oak bushes and
the bullets and shells, as they passed through, made all sorts of
noises. At 2 p. m., General Lawman’s division came up and formed on
our right. General Lawman, without orders charged the enemy. He got
within twenty yards of their strong works, but they were reinforced
and drove Lawman’s brave boys back with a heavy loss of four hundred,
the most of them killed outright. Lawman’s command was taken from him
and the division was placed under our general, A. P. Hovey.
On the morning of the 13th, the rebel cavalry had captured our
pioneer train. They tried to burn our tools, but our cavalry drove
them off and saved part of them. They were soon brought up and
distributed, a pick and two shovels to the company.
We soon got busy and fair earthworks were thrown up. You cannot find
many lazy soldiers where the bullets are cutting as close as they did
there. While one of the boys was lying on top of the pit, a piece of
shell struck him some place in the rear and tore all the hind part of
his pants off. Another boy in Company B was hit in the shoulder.
We had just finished our breastworks when all of the rebel batteries
in front of us got range of us and shelled us like fury until
darkness set in.
As we had had nothing to eat since the morning of the 12th, each
company had three men detailed to go back one mile in the rear and
pack up rations for the regiment. These men would come running back
to our rifle pits, loaded down with camp kettles, filled with coffee
and roasting ears. We were glad to see them coming for we all had
good appetites.
On the morning of the 14th the smell of our dead comrades near the
rebel works became so bad that they could bear it no longer. They
sent a flag of truce and requested a few hours in which to cover the
dead which fell in Lawman’s charge of the 12th. They had refused to
let us get near their works to bury our dead. We had carried off a
part of our wounded at night, but many of them had perished. They
were in the troops from Illinois.
A few hours armistice was given. The rebels piled our dead in ditches
and merely covered them to keep them from stinking them out of their
fortifications. They didn’t get half of them covered before the
firing was resumed.
All on both sides were busy and each man was trying to see how many
shots he could fire.
I was on the picket line that evening, and while lying behind a
good-sized pine tree, my eyes were almost knocked out by bark and
splinters. Some of the best marksmanship which I ever saw was at this
place.
On the morning of the 15th, our lines extended from the bank of Pearl
River, above the town, to the river below, and we were crossing a
division five miles above. The division on our left made a charge and
gained the rebels’ works, but they could not hold them on account of
the heavily masked batteries. The works here were almost as strong as
the works at Vicksburg. The rebels made a counter charge, but were
repulsed with great slaughter. Several charges were made later on in
the evening, but none of them were successful.
On the 16th our division lost fifty men killed and wounded. Volley
after volley was fired that night all around the line, and our heavy
guns kept up a continual fire. The rebel bands played “Dixie” and
“The Bonny Blue Flag.” Our troops were crossing the river above on
pontoons. All was hustle and bustle until after twelve o’clock at
night. The cars were running back and forth, and locomotives sent
forth their screeching whistles, making this night one long to be
remembered.
We knew that something was going to happen, but did not know what
that something was. Some predicted that the rebels were getting
reinforcements, but when we awoke from a short nap on the morning
of the 17th of July, we found everything quiet and Breckenridge’s
and Johnson’s army gone. The generals with forty thousand men had
crawled out through a little gap back of town. They had taken all of
their guns except three hundred stands of small arms and one large
siege gun.
All of the fortifications, which were made of cotton, were soon on
fire and many fine buildings in the city were burned to the ground.
The soldiers were allowed to roam the town over. They carried off
many valuable articles. I saw a safe in a bank blown up and several
hundreds of dollars in gold and silver scattered. There was certainly
some scratching and running over each other to get those bright
pieces which were thrown all over the street by the explosion. Many
fine pianos and much furniture was chopped down.
Our cavalry followed the retreating rebs and picked up several
prisoners who had straggled behind, purposely to be caught.
On the morning of the 18th a regiment from each brigade was sent to
tear up the Memphis and New Orleans Railroad. We tore up the track
for ten miles in each direction. We piled the ties and set them on
fire. We put bars of iron on the piles of ties until they were red
hot, and then bent them double so that the track could not be put
down again. We worked hard all day and at night enjoyed a good rest.
We received marching orders on the 21st and at three o’clock we moved
out in the direction of Vicksburg. We went by the way of Raymond. We
lay here until the morning of the 22nd when we moved out for Black
River Bridge. While on our way we were in a cloudburst. It came late
in the evening and it was so dark and the rain fell so fast that we
could see to travel only by the flashes of lightning.
At the end of an hour the storm ceased. We were wading water which
was knee deep. Some of the regiments were sheltered by the heavy
timber. Just as we came up to the river bottom, we were almost
blinded by a flash of lightning. I saw many of the boys go to the
ground and two of the 28th Iowa regiment were killed.
We waded for a distance of three miles before we came to the bridge.
We crossed over and went into camp. We had the cold, wet, ground for
our bed that night.
On the morning of the 23rd, we marched to Vicksburg. The weather was
very warm that day and we were all almost played out by the time we
had marched through the city and two miles down the river. Here we
went into camp.
On the morning of the 25th, we got orders to furlough three men out
of each company home for sixty days. While here we drew new zouave
uniforms. They were sent to us from Indianapolis, Indiana. There was
a hustling time at this place. Some troops were gathering up captured
arms and ammunition. They were scooping up barrels of lead from the
banks of the forts. The heavy rains had washed the dirt down, and had
left a solid wall of blue lead and pieces of shell.
We found a great many wounded and sick here, but the most of them
were rebel soldiers.