Our brigade is all broken up, most of it being on picket
duty facing Johnston's army and acting as a reserve, and doing police duty
between the two lines of battle. Johnston is reported to be out on the Big
Black river with about ten thousand men, in an attempt to get into Vicksburg,
but he's afraid to come for fear of getting whipped. The boys are having fine
times picking blackberries and plums. I quit cooking for the captain, and was
recommended as a first-class cook. John Lett took my place as cook for the
officers.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B.,
Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 122
