It is rumored that our brigade is to go to Natchez,
Mississippi, in a few days, but we cannot tell whether it is true or not. I was
on police duty today, for the first time, down in Vicksburg. There are more
than a hundred men detailed each day to keep order in the city, and nobody is
allowed on the streets without a pass from the provost marshal. We work on
eight-hour shifts, and each man has a certain part of a street to patrol for
two hours at a time, after which he is off duty for a period of four hours. I
was on duty in a residence district, and while I was walking my beat, a lady
came out of her home for an afternoon's walk. I of course had to ask her to show
her pass. I must have looked pretty fierce to her, with loaded gun, fixed
bayonet and all accouterments on. I asked her kindly for her pass and she
answered that she had none, whereupon I told her what my orders were; that she
would have to return to her home and not come out on the streets again without
a pass, or I would have to take her to the provost marshal's office. She
thanked me very politely as I closed her gate, saying that she wanted to obey
orders and that she would send out and procure a pass before going on the
street again. This lady is certainly experiencing war at her own dooryard, yet
she showed the good breeding of the Southern lady.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B.,
Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 134-5
No comments:
Post a Comment