Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, December 27, 1862

10 Oc I was released I have been on duty for 24 hours without any sleep, there is strong expectation here of an attack & our officers are having the buildings near our embankment torn down & to hurry it on the Negroes set fire to two and burnt them down, there is perhaps from one to two hundred houses will be torn down and some verry costly ones. 9½ Oc night we recd an order to report our company at Head quarters in 15 minutes armed and equiped ready to go into action many of our men was asleep but before the time we ware on hand & Co H of our Reg & 2 companeys of the 120 Ill were put in line & marched by our Major Woodward to the south Sallyport of this Fort Pickering & there awaited an attack & as they did not come Genl Asboth & Major Woodward marched us about a mile outside & posted our comps in different plases to watch & open on them if they came & we divided our Co & Cap Fee took one and I the other platoon & we posted some rods apart, he & a part of his men got a sleep but I & my men did not sleep any I awoke him & some of his men twice, one of his men got down in front of us & we commenced firing on him

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 101

120th Illinois Infantry

Organized at Camp Butler, Ill., by consolidation of 7 Companies recruited for 120th Infantry at Vienna, Ill., and 3 Companies recruited for the 132nd Infantry at Shawneetown, Ill. Mustered in October 28, 1862. Guard railroad bridge at Jimtown till November 9, 1862. Moved to Alton, II1., November 9; thence to Memphis, Tenn. Attached to 1st Brigade, District of Memphis, Tenn., 13th Army Corps (Old), Dept. of the Tennessee, November, 1862. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, District of Memphis, 13th Array Corps, to December. District of Memphis, Tenn., 16th Army Corps, to March, 1863. 2nd Brigade, District of Memphis, 5th Division, 16th Army Corps, to May, 1863. Detached Brigade, District of Northeast Louisiana, to August, 1863. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 16th Army Corps, to December, 1863. Post of Corinth, Miss., 2nd Division, 16th Army Corps, to January, 1864. 2nd Brigade, District of Memphis, Tenn., 16th Army Corps, to June, 1864. 2nd Brigade, Sturgis' Expedition, June, 1864. 1st Brigade, Post of Memphis, District of West Tennessee, to February, 1865. Unassigned Post of Memphis, Tenn., to June, 1865. 1st Infantry Brigade, District of West Tennessee, to September, 1865.

SERVICE. – Garrison and Provost duty at Memphis, Tenn., November 14, 1862, till May, 1863. Expedition to Marion, Ark., January 13-15, 1863. Moved to Vicksburg, Miss., May. Siege operations against Vicksburg May to July. Greenville, Miss., May 12. Moved to La Grange, Tenn., July 28-August 2; thence to Memphis, Tenn., and duty there till November. Expedition into Mississippi October 10-21. Guard train to Corinth, Miss., October 30-November 5. Moved to Corinth November 7, and Post duty there till January 25, i864. Moved to Memphis, Tenn., January 25, and Provost duty there till June. Sturgis' Expedition to Guntown June 1-13. Brice's (or Tishamtngo) Creek, near Guntown, June 10. Ripley June 11. At Memphis, Tenn., till September 30. Repulse of Forrest's attack on Memphis August 21. Moved to Cairo, Ill., September 30-October 1; thence to Paducah, Ky., October 2-3. Moved to Clifton, Tenn., October 3-6; to Florence October 8. Moved to Pittsburg Landing, thence to Johnsonville October 8-11. Moved to Memphis October 21-23, and Provost duty there till September, 1865. Mustered out September 7, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 20 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 4 Officers and 261 Enlisted men by disease. Total 285.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1097