This morning we found that during the night our ship was
driven by the high wind upon a sand bar in the bay. Here we lay, a cold
northwest wind blowing across our deck forty feet above the water. But we fared
better than the boys below, for, on account of their being so sick, it was
reported that their floor was difficult to stand on even after the ship had
stopped. They ran a small side-wheel steamboat alongside of the ship and set a
tall ladder on the wheelhouse, reaching up to our deck, and one by one we
climbed down the ladder to the other boat, which hauled us to the shore. We
were glad to leave that ship. Some of the boys declared that they would rather
walk the entire distance than ride on any ship. We marched out about two miles
from town and went into camp in a heavy pine timber. Here we have plenty of
wood with which to build a good fire, as a cold rain commenced to fall this
afternoon.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B.,
Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 245
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