We are still in the
harbor at Memphis awaiting orders. Eight hundred and fifty wounded men were
brought to this place yesterday from Vicksburg. Grant is still hammering away
at that seemingly impregnable fortress. The weather is extremely hot, which
renders our situation, huddled together as we are, very uncomfortable.
Yesterday we steamed up the river about a mile to a fine grove, and all went on
shore while the crew gave the old boat a thorough cleaning. This morning our
surgeon ordered us all on shore as a "sanitary measure." We marched
off by companies, each company going where it chose, but to different points.
We went to Court House Square and disbanded. It was like being transferred from
a gloomy prison to "smiling fields and shady groves.” The square contains
about five acres; is enclosed by an iron fence; is thickly set with trees of
different varieties the brave old oak, with its spreading branches and
delicious shade; the gorgeous magnolia, the tree of paradise; the orange and
lemon, with an almost endless variety of evergreens. Near the center of the
square is a bust of General Jackson, cut in marble.
On one side of the
pedestal is inscribed those memorable words of that grand old patriot: "The
Federal Union; it Must Be Preserved." I noticed the word
"Federal" was partly obliterated, and inquired the cause. A citizen
told me it was done by a Rebel Colonel at the beginning of the war; that his
men, still cherishing some regard for the hero of New Orleans, took him outside
the city and shot him. At four o'clock we were marched on board our prison
ship.
SOURCE: David Lane,
A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 48-9
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