We had company inspection this morning and then started out
for Monroe, expecting to have a little fight in taking the town. But upon
reaching the place we found that the rebels had withdrawn, leaving at 6 o'clock
in the morning. General Logan's Division entered the town at 10 o'clock, while
our brigade had come within a mile of town, where we again went into bivouac.
In the afternoon there was a heavy rain. The rebels have a hospital here, with
about fourteen hundred sick and wounded. Monroe is a nice town, well situated,
and has some fine buildings. Strict orders had been given us not to kill any
livestock on this expedition; all persons caught in the act were to be
arrested. But some of the boys of our regiment had killed a hog and were in the
act of cutting it up when the general of our division came riding along with
his staff. The boys were caught in the very act. General Stephenson halted, and
wanting to know by what authority they had killed the hog, he was going to have
them arrested on the spot. But they had one fellow equal to the occasion, who
explained that they had killed a wild hog. They were out in the timber getting
wood with which to build fires, when some wild hogs there made a charge upon
them, and in self-defense they had killed the boldest one; they then thought
that as they had killed it they might as well bring it in and have some fresh
pork. The general rode on.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B.,
Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 138-9
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