Friday, July 31, 2020

Diary of 5th Sergeant Osborn H. Oldroyd: June 1, 1863

We stayed in camp all day, much to the enjoyment of the boys. Sergeant Hoover and I got a horse and mule, and rode down to Chickasaw Bayou, where the supplies for our army around Vicksburg are received. I have complained a little of being over-marched, but the trotting of my mule to-day was the hardest exercise I have had for some time.

If our poor foes in Vicksburg could see our piles of provisions on the river landing, they might hunger for defeat. Around Vicksburg the country is quite hilly and broken, with narrow ridges, between which are deep ravines. These ridges are occupied by the opposing forces at irregular distances. At some points the lines of the Union and Confederate armies are but fifty yards apart.

SOURCE: Osborn Hamiline Oldroyd, A Soldier's Story of the Siege of Vicksburg, p. 40

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