Soon as breakfast is over sit down to write a letter, not
finished before I was detailed to take charge of 40 men & report to Div
Head Quarters, was about 9. A. M. when I reported, the detail was to go on the
train to Mobile for the purpose of loading & unloading 200 sacks of corn,
while we waited for the train saw a squad of 10 negro soldiers with arms come
in who had deserted the Rebs & report none closer than 20 miles, they say
the Rebs declare they will bush whack us. & also report that Genl Lee had
issued an order that all Rebs found in arms after the 1st of April (I think
they meant May) should be considered as outlaws. The train started at 9.15,
& run down in 20 minutes, left the detail at the depot & went with Capt
Jordan A. A. Q. M. to the wharf to see about the corn, was in the Provost Marshals
office & the citizens of Mobile was doing a hig job of swearing swallowing
the oath at a gulp. The streets are full of Yankee officers, with their starch
on. It was 1. P. M. before the corn was brought to the cars, after which we
waited for Cols. Patterson & Grier to come before the train starts, while
we wait the coquette a reb. steamer comes down the Mobile river loaded with
cotton, she had tried to get off with it but the Yanks got on the river ahead
of her & She returned with her cargo, about 4. P. M. our teams just over
from the Eastern shore start out to camp, train starts at 4. unload the corn
& get to camp just in time as it rains soon after. I have just time to
distribute the mail, of which there was but little before the rain fell in
perfect floods, rained hard for about an hour, a Regt of Cavalry camp out
beyond us tonight & the artilery belonging to the Div moves out, rumors of
Lees defeat & surrender grow more in favor. Reported that a fed. force had
taken Meridian & that Galveston has had surrendered & Texas had sent
commissioners to Washington asking to come back into the Union & the
privalege of free trade as the residents were starving.
SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa
Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923,
p. 591-2
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