Friday, January 20, 2017

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Saturday, April 1, 1865

Lay in the rifle pits all night. Could hear Smith in the night shelling the Reb transports during the night. Were relieved at 8. A M. & march the co to camp, have a chance to send out mail at 10. I write in a hurry a letter home. Alexander Moore, who has been guarding at the wharf was up today & reports the Monitor Milwakee to have been raised, but another Monitor lies over a torpedo which they are trying to remove without exploding it, one man lost his life by fooling with a torpedo which had been taken out. Capt Ledyard hurt himself last night while inspecting the picket line & is ordered to the rear by the Doctor leaving the co in my charge, P. M. am told the torpedo exploded in the bay & sunk the monitor which was on it. Boys busy all day building bombproofs to get into where the enemy begins to shell us. There was a vigorous shelling kept up all day. After getting to bed was waked by the Adjt who brought me a detail for the co to go out at 3 A. M. to the paralel about 100 yds to rear of the skirmisher for a support to them

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 582-3

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