September 29th.
Had just got asleep last night when it commenced raining. I
dressed myself (that means put on my boots) gathered up my oil-cloth and
blanket and made for a bushy-topped tree. I sat down to lean back against the
tree and I think one of the liveliest motions I ever made was getting up
immediately afterward. The tree was a chinquapin, and I had sat down on a
number of the burs, which are much like those of the chestnut. After quite a
search I secured two small rails, and balancing myself on them I slept soundly
until reveille at 2:30 a. m. It has rained all night, but in a small way, and
just enough to make marching pleasant. We made Vicksburg by 7 a. m., the rain
falling all the time. In fact, it has rained steadily up to this hour, 11 p. m.
After a deal of hard work we are on the steamboat Diana, which belongs to the
Marine brigade. The whole division is loaded on 15 steamboats and we start for
Memphis in the morning. I forgot to mention a queer tree that I noticed at last
night's camp. They say it is the cabbage tree or mock pineapple. The leaves
were many of them fully thirty inches long, giving the tree a tropical
appearance. Saw some of the 8th Illinois boys. The regiment is not as healthy
as it should be.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 193-4
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