Saturday, January 7, 2017

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant George G. Smith: May 14, 1864

Heavy skirmishing most all day. Expected a big battle. Did not materialize. Gunboats all over the falls and came down with the transports. Enemy fired on them from the opposite side of the river. Gunboats shelled the woods. Halted ten miles above Fort De Russey where the rebels had destroyed one gunboat and two transports coming up the river. One of them was the John Warren. The mail was all torn up and scattered over the ground. Many rifle pits were dug in the levee.

SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from a Soldier's Diary, p. 112

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