Steamer “Cosmopolitan,” bound to Beaufort
from
Savannah, Ga.,
January 21, 1864.
I was at Beaufort
some three days when I received a detail on a “military commission” to sit at
headquarters, 4th Division of our corps at Savannah. Reported at Savannah on
the 17th and found my commission had finished its business and adjourned, all
of which satisfied me. Have been ever since trying to get back to the regiment,
but all of the vessels which run on this line have been in use as lighters,
transfering the 19th Corps (which now occupies Savannah) from the large
steamers which have to stop at the bar up the river. This 19th Corps is a
portion of Sheridan's command and helped him win those glorious victories in
the valley. They are a fine soldierly-looking body of men, but have already had
some difficulty with our troops. As I left the city I saw the wind up of a snug
little fight between a portion of the 20th and 19th Corps. Noticed about 40
bloody faces. All this kind of work grows out of corps pride. Fine thing, isn't
it, We left the wharf at 2 p. m. yesterday, grounded about 5 p. m., and had to
wait for high tide, which came at midnight; then a heavy rain and fog set in
and we have made little progress since. Are now, 11 a. m., at anchor, supposed
to be near the mouth of Scull Creek waiting for the fog to clear up. I am
terribly bored at being away from the regiment so long. I feel lost, out of
place and blue. What glorious news from Fort Fisher, and what a horrid story
that is about 13 out of the 15 prisoners the Rebels had of our regiment, dying
of starvation. One of them, W. G. Dunblazier, was of my company, and a better
boy or braver soldier never shouldered a musket. He was captured on the
skirmish line at Dallas.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 212-3
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