Cairo. I have been over to Bird's Point this morning for the
first time. They have thrown up breastworks and dug a deep ditch outside of
them, making a pretty strong camp. We don't apprehend, a shade of a fuss here
but the officers are making as much preparation as if a Waterloo No. 2 were
coming. I went to old Bird's house this morning. It is just like the pictures
we have seen in Harper's of southern planters' homes. A wide, railed porch extends
around two sides of the house from the floor of each story. On the lower porch
sat Bird and his family talking with a number of officers and their ladies.
Looked very pleasant. Back of the house were the quarters filled with 46 of the
ugliest, dirtiest niggers I ever saw, dressed in dirty white cotton. Awful
nasty! The soldiers at the point have plenty of shade. We have but one tree on
our grounds. The boys took a lot of ammunition from Bird the other day, and
also another lot from a nest five miles back in Missouri. It was all given
back, however, as private property. Our whole brigade of six regiments had a
parade yesterday. We are all uniformed now and I think we made a respectable
appearance. The general gave us a special notice. Are the Canton boys going or
not? Do they drill? We have been sleeping on hay up to this week, but have
thrown it away, and now have but the bare boards. The change has been so
gradual from featherbed at home to plank here that I can't think where it
troubled me the least. I had a mattress in Peoria, straw in Springfield, and
hay here. Our living is now very good. Fresh beef every day, potatoes, rice and
beans.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois
Soldier, p. 17
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