Thursday, July 21, 2016

Diary of Sergeant George G. Smith: August 27, 1862 . . .

. . . ordered to Camp Williams and arrived there the next day. It is fourteen miles above New Orleans, near Carlton. Soon after we arrived Colonel Holcomb shot a man by the name of John Dramond for disobedience. The ball penetrated his left breast and he died instantly. Camp Williams was on a narrow strip of land, with Lake Ponchartrain on one side, and a deep swamp on the other. The latter was full of standing water, and the habitation of reptiles and every unclean and hateful bird; but it was of strategic importance as one of the defences of New Orleans.

SOURCE: George G. Smith, Leaves from a Soldier's Diary, p. 27

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