DUNLAP SPRINGS. We
have built a snug log house and last night for the first and probably last time
have slept in it; for our company has orders to move down town and act as city
guards. There are eight or ten regiments here, some of them new ones from
Jackson, Miss. The new regiments, like all new ones, have great confidence in
themselves and think the war is to be settled by them and them only. There is
an undercurrent of jealousy existing between the old and new troops. The old
troops call the new ones "forty dollar men," "bounty men,"
and "home guards." Last Friday, Oct. 31, we had general review from
Gen. McPherson who is here commanding the post. There were twenty regiments,
ten thousand men, I should judge, on the field. There is a great forward
movement taking place. All the troops started out on the Grand Junction road
this morning with the exception of the 43rd, and 17th Ill.. The weather is
fine, the days are warm and pleasant, but the nights are very cold and frosty.
About once in ten days we have a northeast rainstorm, followed by cold weather
and sleet. We are on guard every other day, sometimes every third day.
SOURCE: Seth James
Wells, The Siege of Vicksburg: From the
Diary of Seth J. Wells, Including Weeks of Preparation and of Occupation After
the Surrender, p. 11
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