Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant George G. Smith: December 22, 1864

Arrived at Port Hudson. Went ashore; but the place did not look much as it did during the siege — the works were narrowed up. I recognized the spot where the mortar battery stood, and where the gallant First Platoon of Co. E, First Louisiana, charged up the bluff of Thompson's creek, and drove the rebels behind their breast-works, half an hour in advance of the rest of the line of skirmishers, on May 27, 1863. I saw the terrible Lady Davis that used to salute us every evening with her mighty shells that never exploded or hit anybody. It was a 10-inch gun, mounted en barbette in a bastion, on a pivot, so it commanded the entire horizon. The soldiers got wonderful ideas of that gun. They said it was mounted on a platform car, and they had a track so as to run it down to the breast-works every night and fire it. We could distinguish the point where we charged on June 14th, when we got so horribly cut up. I wanted to go to these spots, but there was not time. Arrived at Donaldsonville at 9 p. m., and encamped on the old drill ground.

SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from a Soldier's Diary, p. 142-3

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