Near Farmington, Miss.,
May 28, 1862
We moved up here this morning under the hottest sun and over
the dustiest roads, and I then helped the major lay off the camp, and pitched
our tents ourselves. Gracious, how hot it was! I worked and sweated and blessed
General Pope for ordering us forward on such a day. I'll wager we are the only
field and staff that pitch and strike our head quarter's tents without the aid
of the men. But I can't bear the idea of making men who are our equals at home
do our work here. Soldiering in the ranks spoils a man for acting officer “a-la-regular.”
We're ordered to have our horses saddled by 3 a. m. to-morrow. There has been
the liveliest kind of cannonading along the whole lines to-day. Our whole army
advanced about a mile. I think that at almost any point on the line we can
throw shot into their works. Distances vary from one and one-half miles to two
and a quarter or two and one-half. Many of the generals think that to-morrow
there will be a general fight. They talk a great deal more since the news
correspondents have been sent off; and of course anything of that kind, that a
brigadier says, goes the rounds of the whole camp in real telegraph style. Have
heard of a number of killings to-day, and haven't heard a tithe of the whole.
The enemy are beginning to dispute our further advance right strongly. Many
think that Halleck has commenced a regular siege. He has left a line of
splendid defences to-day, and if he forms new works on the position taken up
to-day, we will know that we are in for a long fight, a-la-Yorktown. Two
regiments of cavalry went out this morning to destroy the Ohio & Mobile R.
R., 30 miles south of Corinth. I wish them luck. Many of the Rebel shot and
shell struck within a half mile of the front of our camp to-day. It looks
somewhat like the times at Madrid and Point Pleasant, but will probably be a
little more interesting before we finally finish it.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 94-5
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