Camp Parapet, La.
Captain Bostwick gets married--In the hospital at last--Good care
and treatment--The slow process of getting well--The Ponchatoula
trip--Mosquitoes and alligators.
_February 11, 1863._
Just at night, as I had finished the above, the Laurel Hill, the boat
that brought us from quarantine to Chalmette, tied up in front of camp
and down came our tents and on board we went. We came up the river past
New Orleans and between that city and Algiers, which is quite a large
place on the left hand shore. New Orleans seems a big city, but lies as
low as the river. A high dock all along its front is built up with
timber and is so high only the upper parts of the buildings show from
the river. No streets are seen at all. We also passed a place called
Carrolton and very soon after landed at what is said to be Camp Parapet.
There are no tents near the river but there are thousands a short
distance back. The outskirts of Carrolton come close up on the
down-river side, while the up-river side has a high bank reaching from
the river back as far as I can see. Beyond that is an unexplored country
(to me), and away in the distance appears to be just such a forest as
was in sight back of Camp Chalmette. A good-looking dwelling house and a
few small buildings are near by and the ground is tramped bare of all
vegetation, as if soldiers had just moved away. We came down the Levee
and put up our tents and crawled in, for it was night by that time. We
have had some rain and some sunshine, but the weather is warm and
altogether I like our present place of abode the best of any we have yet
had since we left Camp Millington. Another case of smallpox has
developed, but he was hustled to a tent way back of camp and I suppose
our arms will have to be pricked again. Mine looks as if a setting hen
had picked it now. Miss Kate Douglass, from Amenia Union, came to camp
yesterday and Captain Bostwick and several officers have gone to the
city with her. Report says the captain and she are to be married
to-night. Six months in the service and I have so far been only an
expense to Uncle Sam. But I have seen something of the big farm the Rebs
hope to rob him of and I hope I may yet do something to put him in full
possession of it again. Letters from home, also one from Walter Loucks,
who is in the hospital at New Orleans.
_February 16, 1863._
In the hospital after all. Dr. Andrus came last night to our tent and
ordered me into the house I spoke of. I had a warm, dry bed and a good
night's rest and feel much better to-day. The doctor has his office
downstairs and the upstairs part is crammed full of sick men. A big tent
is being put up and cot beds put in to put the fever patients in.
Captain Bostwick was married last night, so it is said. Corporal Knox
died in a fit this afternoon. It tires me to write so I must stop.
Good-night.
_February 20, 1863._
Captain Bostwick came to see me to-day. Two men died last night, one in
the hospital and the other in his tent. I don't feel as well to-day.
_February 21, 1863._
Think I am really better to-day. If I keep on I'll soon be out of this
and with the boys again. But they all come in to see the sick as often
as they can and so we keep track of each other.
_March 4, 1863._
_Wednesday._ I have been very sick. This is the first time I have felt
able to make a mark with a pencil. I was taken in the night, after the
day I thought myself so much better. Was taken out in the tent, from
which I judge I have had fever.
_March 5, 1863._
Am very weak yet. A little tires me out. A letter from Herman just a
month old. Coon died last night, but we none of us knew it till we saw
him carried out.
_March 6, 1863._
Getting better fast, but can't write much yet.
_March 7, 1863._
Was carried back into the house to-day and put among the convalescents.
I must be getting well, but it is slow. Most all the time I was worst
off Dr. Andrus let me have anything I wanted to eat, but then I couldn't
eat it. Now I can eat, he has cut me down to nothing. What he allows me
only makes me crazy for more.
_March 8, 1863._
Had a wash and a shave and am tired out. The regiment has marching
orders. Wish I was out of this to go with them.
_March 9, 1863._
Gunboats are said to be going up the river every day. I wonder what's
up.
_March 10, 1863._
Don't feel quite so smart as I did. This getting well is slow business.
_March 11, 1863._
The boys say they are ready to march, but don't get any further orders.
Letters from home. Have written to father--wish I could see him.
_March 14, 1863._
Not feeling so good these last few days.
_March 15, 1863._
_Sunday._ Have my pants on and have made up my bed. If this keeps on
I'll soon be able to hunt for something to eat.
_March 16, 1863._
Ben Crowther is awful sick. He is a fine fellow and we hate to lose him.
He is of better stuff than the average of us. I wish I could kill his
nurse, for he has him tied down to the bed and stands laughing at his
efforts to get loose. But it is the only way to keep him in one place,
for he is out of his head. Talks to his wife as if she was right by his
side.
_March 17, 1863._
Last night I got a little box from home. That I may never forget a
single thing in it I'll put them right down now. On top was a New York
Sun, next a dear little letter from Jane. A little package of tea, a
bottle of Arnold's Balsam, a pipe, a comb (wish it had been a fine tooth
comb), a little hand looking-glass, a spool of thread, a lot of buttons,
a good lead pencil, a pair of scissors, a ball of soap, half a paper of
pins, a darning needle and a small needle, a steel pen and way down in
the bottom a little gold locket which made the tears come. God bless the
dear ones at home. How thoughtful and how kind of them to think of so
many things, and all useful, too.
_March 18, 1863._
Too much excitement yesterday and I feel like two weeks ago. The doctor
says I will have these setbacks though and it is only a part of the
process of getting well. A man named Kipp died to-day. I don't know how
many die out in the tent.
_March 19, 1863._
Poor Crowthers died very peacefully about noon to-day. His cot is next
mine and he seemed like one of the family to me. The company has
undertaken to raise money to send his body home.
_March 20, 1863._
Orderly Holmes is very sick. His discharge is under his pillow (or
knapsack). He lies in a room next to this and I can hear him talk,
giving orders to the company as if he were well.
_March 21, 1863._
_Saturday._ This is a hard spot to get well in. Two poor fellows are
near their end to all appearances, and it is trying to hear then rave
about home and their families. I am glad their friends cannot see and
hear them. And yet the hardened wretches called nurses find something in
it to laugh at. I wish I could change places between them and the sick
ones. Wrote three letters to-day and don't feel so very tired. Begin to
think Dr. Andrus was right. If he would only let me eat about four times
as much, what a jewel he would be.
_March 26, 1863._
_Thursday._ The finest morning yet. The air is just right. The birds are
singing, the sun shining bright and everything seems just right for
getting well. A man named Barker died last night about midnight. He has
seemed to be dying for a week and we have watched to see him breathe
his last any minute. Orderly Holmes is better and may get well after
all. Some of the boys killed an alligator to-day and cooked and ate his
tail. They say it is just as good as fish and looked like fish.
_March 27, 1863._
Have been downstairs. My legs just made out to get me there and back.
Will they ever get strong again? But I am getting there, slow but sure,
as I can see by looking back only a short time.
_March 28, 1863._
Another fine day, and another trip downstairs. My legs behaved better
this time. Am not near so tired. Now that I can write without getting
tired I must put down some things I remember, but which I could not
write at the time. I shall always remember them of course, but I want to
see how near I can describe them on paper. First I want to say how very
kind my comrades have been all through. I can think of many acts of
kindness now that I paid little attention to then, but they kept coming
along just the same. Whatever else I think of, the thought of their care
for me and how they got passes and tramped miles to get me something to
eat, always taking it to Dr. Andrus first to see if it would do for
me--these thoughts keep coming up and my load of gratitude keeps getting
heavier. Can I ever repay them? God has been good to me, better than I
deserve. I was first taken to the room where I am now writing. I
remember but little of what happened before I was taken out and put in
the big hospital tent. It is a large affair, made up of several tents
joined together endwise and wide enough for two rows of cots along the
side, with an alley through the middle, towards which our feet all
pointed.
I remember the head medical man coming through every day or so and the
doctors would take him to certain cots, where they would look on the
fellows lying there and put down something in a book. I soon noticed
that most always such a one died in a short time, and I watched for
their coming to my cot. One day they did, and I remember how it made me
feel. Dr. Andrus was so worked down that a strange doctor was in charge,
but under Dr. Andrus, who had charge over all. When he came through I
motioned to him and he came and sat on the next cot, when I told him I
would get well if I could get something good to eat. "All right," said
he, "what will you have?" I told him a small piece of beefsteak. He sent
one of the nurses to his mess cook and he soon came back with a plate
and on it a little piece of steak which he prepared to feed me. But the
smell was enough and I could not even taste it. The doctor then
proceeded to eat it, asking if I could think of anything else. I thought
a bottle of beer would surely taste good and so he sent to the sutler's
for it. But he had to drink that too, for I could not. He laughed at me
and though I was disappointed, it cheered me up more than anything else
had done for a long time. When I got so I could eat, I surely thought he
would starve me to death.
A poor fellow across the tent opposite me got crazy and it took several
men to hold him on his cot. The doctor came and injected something in
his breast which quieted him for the night, but when it wore off he was
just as bad and he finally died in one of them. On my right lay a man
sick unto death, while on my left lay another whose appetite had come
and who was begging everybody for something to eat. His company boys
brought him some bread and milk which he ate as if famished. The next
morning when I awoke and looked about to see how many faces were covered
up I found both my right and left hand neighbors had died in the night
and their blankets were drawn up over their faces. The sights I saw
while I was able to realize what was going on were not calculated to
cheer me up and how I acted when I was out of my head I don't know. At
any rate I got better and was brought back to this room, where I have
since been.
_March 29, 1863._
_Sunday._ Had a thunder shower in the night and some sharp lightning.
Was not allowed to go out to-day on account of the ground being wet. We
hear of hard fighting up the river, but reports get so twisted I put
little stock in them. Still I hope they are true, for they are most all
favorable to our side.
_April 1, 1863._
Nothing worth writing for a few days. To-day those we left at quarantine
came up looking hale and hearty. Most of them have had smallpox or
varioloid. The weather is warm and the boys who have been out of camp
report alligators are plenty in the swamp back of us, and snakes of many
kinds also. I am rambling about camp nowadays, but am not discharged
from the hospital yet. General Neal Dow found a place next door to camp
to-day where liquor is sold. He took every bottle he could find and
smashed them across the porch rail after first locking up the landlord.
Camp is being cleared and every precaution taken to keep away yellow
fever. There is none of it yet, but it is expected this summer on
account of so many soldiers that are new to the climate. Lew Holmes has
been worse for some days and we fear we shall lose him yet.
_Midnight._ I am sitting up to let a tired out nurse get a nap. Holmes
died a few minutes ago. He tried to tell me something, but his tongue
was so swelled I could not understand what he said. He pulled me clear
down to his face and his breath was awful. I pretended to understand,
and he settled back as if satisfied and only breathed a few times more.
His troubles are over, and those of his old father and mother and his
wife and child will begin when the news reaches them. I am glad they did
not see the end.
_April 2, 1863._
Company B chipped in for a metallic coffin and Holmes will go home. A
hearse from the city has just been here and taken him away. He was one
of the best of fellows, and very popular with the men. I wonder now if
Kniffin will be tried on us again. There is some reason for it now, but
it should go to Riley Burdick, who is next in line.
_April 3, 1863._
Two funerals to-day. We have quite a graveyard started. From all I can
hear, by talking with soldiers of other regiments, none of them have
been hit as hard as the 128th New York. And it all comes from our being
stuffed into the hold of the Arago a month before we sailed. A big
responsibility rests somewhere.
_April 4, 1863._
_Saturday._ Cleaning-house day in the hospital. I have been helping so
one of the nurses can get off for a walk outside. We found a burying
ground where I counted fifty from the 12th Connecticut Volunteers.
Nearly all died in August and September last. So we have not had all the
sickness and death. I will try and not complain as much as I have. There
were only eight from our regiment besides two we have sent home. From
there we followed the parapet to the Jackson & Mississippi R. R., which
runs not far back from camp. Saw a regiment of negro soldiers, who
seemed to feel fine, were having all sorts of games and were in
first-rate spirits. Their camp was clean and at the head of each company
street were flower beds. Just outside they had planted a garden and
onions and other things were growing. The commissioned officers were
white. Everything else was black. But for get-up and style they beat any
white regiment I have yet seen. It made me ashamed to go home. When I
get out of the hospital I mean to try and get the boys to be more like
them.
_April 5, 1863._
_Sunday._ Some time while I was sick Chaplain Parker left us. I hear he
had some differences of opinion with the officers, but don't know what.
Major Foster was in it in some shape, for his name and the chaplain's
are the most common in the yarns that are told about camp. I used to
believe all I heard, but I have learned to wait for the truth, and that
doesn't always come out. Lieutenant Colonel Smith is a rough and ready
customer and stands in no more awe of the officers than of the men. So
long as we behave half way decent he is kindness itself, but disobey
orders and he is a raging lion. But he is our best friend, and is the
only real soldier in the whole outfit. He is a regular army officer and
his chief concern seems to be the welfare of the enlisted men. Now that
I am able to be about camp and have no duties to perform, I enjoy seeing
the captains and lieutenants put through their paces as well as the rank
and file. For meeting to-day Major Foster read a chapter from the Bible,
read a hymn and then sang it, after which he pronounced the benediction.
_April 6, 1863._
One of Company A's men died to-day. His name was Burch. A boat-load of
negroes landed here to-day and were taken down towards the city, what
for I did not learn. Many of the men in camp are having diarrhea, and
some have to go to the hospital, where the diet can be regulated. Some
corn and contraband goods were seized to-day a short distance up the
river. A man has been suspected for a long time and to-day was seized
upon with all his goods. We are expecting letters every day now. We
watch the papers for the mail steamers, and if we get no letters are
much disappointed.
_April 7, 1863._
Two steamers due and yet no letters. Been loafing about camp so long I
feel as if I was an unprofitable servant. But as there is nothing doing
I am about as profitable as the rest.
_April 8, 1863._
A little excitement to-day. An attempt was made to spike some guns near
the negro troops headquarters. A few shots were fired but no one hit,
hurt or captured. A letter from my sister, Mrs. Rowley. All well at
home. For a change I have a troublesome boil on my leg. The weather is
beautiful. Everything is growing--I never saw leaves and flowers come so
fast.
_April 10, 1863._
Yesterday I took the place of a nurse who was ailing, and to-day have
been with several others to explore the country roundabouts. We came to
an orange orchard and found and cut some sprouts for canes. General Dow
and his staff were riding past, and seeing us, rode full tilt towards
us, as if to run over us. The general was so busy watching us he never
saw a ditch, and into it he went. The horse went down and the general
went on his head, landing in the tall grass on all fours. He was not
hurt, and after his staff had caught up and helped him on his horse, he
came up and said, "To what regiment do you men belong?" Being told, he
snapped out, "Report to your quarters at once and don't be seen cutting
orange trees again." It is said he roams about like this, driving in any
he finds outside, and in other ways making himself unpopular with the
boys. However, he didn't take our canes and we have some nice ones to
show for the trip.
Two letters to-day, and although they were a month old, they were full
of news to me.
_April 11-12, 1863._
About camp and hospital yesterday, getting well every minute. Except
that I am skin poor and tire out easily, I am well. My little
looking-glass first told me what a change my sickness made in my looks,
but I can see my old self coming back every day now. A short meeting
to-day, the only thing besides my diary to remind me it is Sunday, God's
day. He only asks one day in seven, and it seems as if more attention
should be paid it.
_April 13, 1863._
Wrote and mailed some letters this morning. Wm. Partington died in this
room this morning. He and I came here the same time and lay side by
side. I was taken to the big tent and he left here. We were both hard
sick and when I came back Bill was in just about the same condition I
was. We both got round together and began to go out at the same time. A
day or two ago diarrhea hit him and now he is taken and I left. So it
goes. We plan for to-morrow and to-morrow we are wrapped in a blanket
and out we go.
_April 14, 1863._
A letter from John Van, with one in it from George Wilson and one from
T. Templeton of the 150th. They are feeling fine and the regiment has
little or no sickness to report.
_April 15, 1863._
Reported for duty with the company this morning, but have to report to
the doctor every day until I get my discharge from there. Have been
appointed commissary sergeant. See to drawing the rations for Company B,
and shall look out that they get their share. This relieves me from
guard duty and from everything that interferes with my duties as
commissary. It relieves me from duty in the ranks, adds another stripe
to my arm, and two dollars per month to my pay. I am glad to have
something to do. At night a citizen tried to go through camp and when
halted by the guards started to run and was shot. What he was, or why he
acted as he did I don't know, and he can't tell.
_April 16, 1863._
_Thursday._ A letter from Walt Loucks asking me to come and see him.
Shall surely go if I can get a pass.
_April 17, 1863._
_Friday._ Went to see Walt. I had a first-rate visit. He is about well.
I did little but answer questions about what has been going on since we
parted at Camp Chalmette, who is living and who have died and what sort
of a place we are in. Found three letters for me when I came back.
_Later._ Marching orders with two days' cooked rations and 100 rounds of
ammunition, blankets and overcoats. I am going, too, unless Dr. Andrus
stops me. Must stop and write a letter before taps.
_April 18, 1863._
_Saturday._ The regiment has gone and I am left. When will I get clear
from the hospital? One of the hospital cooks, E. Furguson, died to-day.
There are hardly enough men in camp to bury him, only the sick and
convalescent being left.
_April 19, 1863._
_Sunday._ We buried Furguson to-day. The grave was full of water and we
had to punch the box down with sticks until the earth held it. Hear
nothing from the regiment.
_April 20, 1863._
No real news yet. Lots of rumors though, one of which is that they are
all cut up and the rest captured. We don't believe it.
_April 21, 1863._
Drew ten days' rations to-day, so I guess there is some of Company B
left and that they will be back to eat it.
_April 22, 1863._
_Wednesday._ The regiment came back to-day. Have been gone four days.
Had some hard marching and lived high on pigs and chickens found by the
way. They went up the Pearl River, and captured a small steamer loaded
with tar and rosin. They feel fine and to hear them talk one would think
this matter of putting down the Rebellion is nothing if only the 128th
is given a good whack at it.
_April 23, 1863._
The officers have drawn new tents and the captains have given the cooks
their old ones for cook-houses. We tore down the old shanty, and put up
the new house in short order.
_April 24, 1863._
The morning paper gives a glowing account of the great expedition of the
128th. Speaks well of the behavior of both officers and men and their
great respect for private property. But Colonel Cowles has been
lecturing them and his account differs from the newspaper reports on
nearly all points.
We were paid off to-day and the money flies. We have floors in our tents
now. An order has gone forth for camp inspection once each day. The
tents, the cook-houses and cooking utensils and everything will be
inspected, and must be as clean as possible or trouble will come. Taking
it all in all we have good times. One of the boys has a fiddle, and some
are good singers. We have only enough to do to make us hungry when meal
time comes.
_April 30, 1863._
Walter Loucks has returned to camp and looks well. He feels some sore
from sleeping on a board, after his stay in the hospital, but that will
wear off. General Dow has cleared the peddlers out of camp and torn down
some shanties near, where pies, etc., were sold. My throat has got sore
again and I must get Dr. Andrus to fix it up. We have had marching
orders a couple of times, but each time they were countermanded.
_May 6, 1863._
Nothing unusual has happened since my last entry. I have written and
have received several letters; have been on duty all the time, although
I am supposed to be in the hospital yet. Have seen the doctor every day
and he keeps tinkering at me. We hear all sorts of rumors of big battles
and big victories and believe what we are a mind to. My office,
commissary of Company B, is not very exacting while in camp. It keeps me
out of the ranks though and until I get round again I am glad of it.
_May 10, 1863._
_Sunday._ Yesterday this regiment and many others were reviewed by
General Banks. Evidently something is going to happen soon. The health
of our regiment is fairly good now. I begin to find out that some had
rather be sick than to be on duty, and they play it till Dr. Andrus
sends them back to camp. We have some very hot weather, and then again
some not so hot. Mosquitoes are the pest of our lives. They hide in our
tents, ready to pounce upon us the minute we enter, and the only place
we are free from them is in the hot sun outside. At night and on cloudy
days they give us no peace. Their name is legion.
_May 11, 1863._
_Monday._ Charles Wardwell, and a fellow named Hamlin made me a call
to-day. I was as much surprised as if they had risen right out of the
ground before us. I did not know Charlie had enlisted. He is in the 23d
Connecticut, which is doing guard duty along the railroad between
Algiers and Brashear City, which they say is not very far from here. It
is a nine months' regiment and their time is out in August. Though the
news they could tell was rather old, I was very glad to see someone from
God's country again, and we had much to tell each other of our
experiences. They had only about a week on the transport and came
through in good shape. They swallowed hard and tried to take down what I
told them of our experience on board the Arago and in camp and hospital
since, but I don't feel like blaming them if they did think I was lying.
But in the short time we were together the half could not be told.
_Night._ Marching orders. Three days' cooked rations and ten days' raw,
to be packed for an early start to-morrow. Wardwell and his friend stay
with us to-night.
_May 12, 1863._
"PASS MAN SHAK," or SOUTH PASS, LA. _Tuesday._ We left camp in charge of
an officer and the convalescents and marched out on the plain about a
mile, where a train stood waiting early this morning, and after a short
ride stopped here, the most God-forsaken looking place I have yet seen.
It is a sort of connecting link between Lake Ponchartrain and Lake
Marapaugh.[5] Our regiment and the 6th Michigan came. We soon came to
the woods we had so often looked at from camp, and from that on it was
one unbroken forest of the biggest and tallest trees I have yet seen.
There was water in pools all along and on every hand as far as can be
seen. The railroad is built on piles driven in the mud, sawed off on a
line and huge hewn timbers laid on them to support the ties and track.
Not a foot of dry ground anywhere and not a ray of sunshine could get
through. But mosquitoes, I thought we had them in camp, but we did not.
It was only the skirmish line; the main body is here. I am writing this
with one hand while the other is waving a bush to keep them from eating
me alive. The men were ferried across on a small steamer and they went
on out of sight, scrambling over the ties as best they could, for in
places the woodwork has been burned out and then they had to climb down
and wallow through the mud and then up on the ties again until the last
of them were out of sight. I have really no business to be here as the
captain objected, fearing I would be more bother than I was worth. Dr.
Andrus was not even consulted. When the train started I could not resist
the temptation to go and I swung on and here I am with the quartermaster
and the commissary stores, which are to go up the pass to where the men
have gone. There is a large space planked over, and we are in the dry
and waiting for the boat to come for us. Men are busy rebuilding the
burned out places in the trestlework and bridging the river, which is
narrow here. Everyone calls it a "pass," but it has quite a current and
is a river just the same.
_May 13, 1863._
We heard firing this morning and think the boys may be at work. A man
came back about midnight last night. How he ever did it I don't see, but
he said two soldiers fell through the trestlework and were hurt and had
to be left behind.
_10 a. m._ The men who got hurt have crawled back and are here, just
bruised up a little. I guess they didn't try very hard or they might
have gone on.
_2 p. m._ Another straggler has come back and says the boys captured
fourteen Indians after a short skirmish. They are being sent back under
guard and will soon be here. Here they come, and a tough-looking lot
they are; fourteen of them are said to be Indians, but they look more
like plain niggers to me. There are three white men. Rebels I suppose,
but they don't act like very ferocious ones.
_May 18, 1863._
We slept in a drizzling rain, but the mosquitoes kept us so busy we took
no cold. A boat came in the morning and we loaded the stores and started
up the river, reaching a small lake called Lake Marapaugh (don't know
how these names are spelled, so put them down according to sound), which
is rather a widening of the river than a lake. The river is narrow and
very crooked. The boat would run up to a bank, send a rowboat across
with a line, which was made fast to a tree and the boat turned around a
corner. This was done many times on the way up. Alligators lay on fallen
trees and on the bank and many were swimming in the river. One came
close to the bow of a barge which was lashed to the steamboat, and I hit
him a whack on the snout with a piece of coal. From his actions he
didn't like it. The water and the land seem to be on the same level. The
tall cypress trees grow thick all the way and no opening appeared of any
size. Some trees hang over the water so it was all we could do to get
past and one did sweep the commissary's scales overboard. We finally
came to hard ground and the live oaks and other trees took the place of
the cypress, which only seems to grow in wet ground. A curious thing
about the cypress is the way the roots grow up out of the ground.
Cypress knees, they call them. They grow straight up, sometimes as high
as ten feet and all the way down from that. No branches or shoots grow
from them and they vary in size as much as in height. We finally tied up
at a place called Wadensburgh, a small village which proved to be the
end of our journey by water. Sergeant Drake and a couple of men went
back in a boat and were fortunate enough to hook onto the scales that
were lost and bring them up. In getting ashore I landed right beside a
cottonmouth moccasin snake, said to be as poisonous as a rattlesnake. He
lay in some weeds and raised up as if to strike at me. I still had hold
of a pole I had used to jump off with, and with it I hit him and broke
his back. A man standing by told me what it was. Quartermaster Mace, who
came up with the regiment, soon appeared with some teams and as soon as
loaded we started for Ponchatoula, where the regiment is. It was dark
when we started. It was said to be three and a half miles, but they were
long ones. We got stuck in the mud, the wagon broke down, and we were
wet to the skin with rain before we reached our destination. We had no
lights and only knew we were in the road because we were not in the
bushes which grow thick along it. We reached Ponchatoula about ten
o'clock, wet, tired and hungry, but not cold, for the weather is quite
warm. Our coming alarmed the guards and the entire force turned out to
receive the enemy. We lay down on the floor of an empty building, and
wet as we were, slept sound until morning. The sun shone bright the next
morning, May 15th, and as soon as our joints began to limber up, hunted
for and found Company B. They are in good spirits and have enjoyed the
outing from camp very much. But they were glad when the cook called them
up for coffee and hard-tack. The ground is high and dry for this
country. A pine forest of immense trees is close by on one side and in
sight everywhere. The Jackson & Mississippi R. R. goes through here, and
is the one that the troops came on. A picket line is somewhere outside
and cavalry videttes outside of that. Fresh beef is plenty and there is
now and then a chicken. The people are as civil and respectful as can be
expected, when we remember what a lot of uninvited guests they are
called upon to entertain.
_May 16, 1863._
A cavalryman came in for a horse this morning, his having been killed in
the night. We heard firing in the night, but it seemed a long way off.
Company B went on the picket line this morning and I find being
commissary in camp and being commissary in the field are two different
things. The company must be fed no matter where they are. I got hold of
a horse and cart and with it made the rounds. A couple of cavalrymen who
were wounded during the night have been brought in. At night a report
came that a rebel detachment had got past the vidette guard and would
most likely be heard from before morning. Orders are being given out and
ours is to stand fast in case of an attack. That sounds easy at any
rate.
_May 17, 1863._
No attack came. The only enemies that found us were the mosquitoes and
how they did punish us! My hands, face and ankles are swollen full, and
this when I was awake all night and fighting them off in every way I
could think of. Seventeen prisoners have just been brought in and after
a feed started on toward Pass Man Shak.
_May 18, 1863._
There has been much shifting about to-day. Orderlies riding here and
there, and a move of some sort is the next thing to look for. Have
orders to be ready with coffee and a day's cooked rations. That doesn't
mean a long journey.
_Later._ The quartermaster's stores have gone towards Wadensburgh.
_May 19, 1863._
_Night._ Camp Parapet again. We started from Ponchatoula about 4 A. M.
and at 11 reached Pass Man Shak, by way of the railroad. The trestlework
is burned in places and across these we passed the best we could. One
man dropped a frying pan he had stolen, and in getting it stirred up an
alligator, and decided he didn't want the frying pan after all. Several
fell and were more or less hurt, but we all came through and were nearly
the rest of the day being taken across in small boats. Then without
mishap we came on to a point opposite camp and were soon here. The trip
has done me a world of good. I don't ask any odds of any now that I am
well again. I guess I only needed parboiling, and that I got sleeping in
clothes soaking wet. The men are all feeling fine and the stories they
are telling such as did not go are wonderful to hear.
_May 20, 1863._
CAMP PARAPET, LA. We settled down early last night and on account of the
little sleep we had had were not called this morning. I slept right
through the night and until after twelve to-day, then found orders for
another move. Must get two days' rations ready right away. I wonder
where we go this time.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] Spelled as they sound.