Arrived at Port Hudson. Went ashore; but the place did not
look much as it did during the siege — the works were narrowed up. I recognized
the spot where the mortar battery stood, and where the gallant First Platoon of
Co. E, First Louisiana, charged up the bluff of Thompson's creek, and drove the
rebels behind their breast-works, half an hour in advance of the rest of the
line of skirmishers, on May 27, 1863. I saw the terrible Lady Davis that used
to salute us every evening with her mighty shells that never exploded or hit
anybody. It was a 10-inch gun, mounted en barbette in a bastion, on a pivot, so
it commanded the entire horizon. The soldiers got wonderful ideas of that gun.
They said it was mounted on a platform car, and they had a track so as to run
it down to the breast-works every night and fire it. We could distinguish the
point where we charged on June 14th, when we got so horribly cut up. I wanted
to go to these spots, but there was not time. Arrived at Donaldsonville at 9 p.
m., and encamped on the old drill ground.
SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from
a Soldier's Diary, p. 142-3
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