We left our camp this morning at 8 o'clock and marched down
to the coast about four miles below Savannah. At 2 o'clock we embarked on the
transports for Beaufort, South Carolina. Our regiment is on board a ship built
in England as a blockade-runner for the Southern Confederacy, but which was
finally captured by our navy at Savannah. It rained all forenoon, but by noon
it had cleared off with a high wind blowing in from the ocean. Our ship, not
having enough ballast, rocked frightfully in the gale, upsetting tables in the
dining room and frightening many of the boys lest we should be turned over. The
sailors only smiled at our discomfiture. The rough sea made a great many of the
boys sick, but our company being on the hurricane deck, did not become so sick.
We reached Beaufort at 11 p. m., but cannot land, and so have to remain on the
boats all night.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B.,
Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 244-5
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