Diary of 5th Sergeant Osborn H. Oldroyd: May 2, 1863

As the sun peeped over the eastern horizon, we slipped out of camp and went our way rejoicing. Oh, how beautiful the morning; calm and pleasant, with the great variety of birds warbling, as though all was peace and quiet. When camping in the darkness of night, our surroundings astonish us in the broad day light. We scarcely know our next door neighbor until the morning light gleams upon him. While waiting orders to move, many thousand troops passed to the front, so I think our regiment will see another day pass with unbroken ranks. We have the very best fighting material in our regiment, and [are] ever ready for action, but are not particularly “spoiling for a fight.” Our turn will come, as it did at Fort Donelson, Shiloh and many otber fields of glory. It is quite common to hear soldiers who have never seen the first fight say they are afraid they will never get any of the glories of this war. They never “spoil” for the second fight, but get glory enough in the first to last them. When our regiment was living upon soft bread and luxuries of sweet things from home, while camped in the rear of Covington, Kentucky, we thought that the war would be over and our names not be spread upon our banners as the victors in a battle. There is glory enough for all. We stopped awhile in Port Gibson, and the boys found a lot of blank bank currency of different denominations, upon the Port Gibson bank. They signed some of them, and it is quite common to see a private of yesterday a bank president to-day. This may not become a circulating medium to a very great extent, but it is not at all likely that it will be refused by the inhabitants along our route when tendered in payment for corn-bread, sweet potatoes, etc. In the afternoon we stopped awhile, and taking advantage of the halt made coffee, which is generally done, whether it is noon or not. There is a wonderful stimulant in a cup of coffee, and as we require a great nerve tonic, coffee is eagerly sought after. Dick Hunt, of Company G, and Tom McVey, of Co. B, discovered a poor lonely confederate chicken by the roadside. By some hen strategem it had eluded the eyes of at least ten thousand Yankees, but when the 20th Ohio came along the searching eyes of these two members espied its place of concealment. They chased it under an outhouse, which was on stilts, as a great many of the southern houses are. Dick being rather the fleetest crawled under the house and secured the feathered prize, but Tom seeing his defeat in not securing a “preacher's dinner,” found a coffee-pot under another corner of the house, which he brought to daylight, and it proved to be full of silver coin mostly dollars. These he traded off to the boys for paper, as he could not carry his load. How foolish it is for the Southern people to flee and leave their beautiful property to the foe. We only want something to eat. There are some who would apply the torch to a deserted home, that would not do so if the owners remained in it. It is quite common here to build the chimneys on the outside of the houses, and I have noticed them still standing where the house had been burned. The march to-day, towards Black River, has been a very pleasant one. I suppose Grant knows where he is taking us to, for we don't, not having had any communications with him lately upon the subject.

SOURCE: Osborn Hamiline Oldroyd, A Soldier's Story of the Siege of Vicksburg, p. 5-6

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant George G. Smith: October 12, 1864

The expedition marched ten miles into the woods towards Black river. The Colonel asked me if I would take command of the flanking column. I said yes. I had been on duty all night, and was pretty tired. The woods were thick and difficult to pass through. We marched in single file, five paces apart and five rods from the road. The marching column had a clean passage, and it gave us good work to keep up, but we did. About three miles in the woods we ran on to a large cattle pen, made of trees and brush. I suppose the Texans would call it a “correll.” It was their practice to drive the cattle from the fort on Black river down into this correll, and when there were no gunboats in sight swim them across in the night. It appeared they had used it a long time. Six or seven miles further on we halted at a little clear pond of water in the woods, took a little lunch, rested a short time, and then started on the return, halting at a creek. Next day took transports and arrived at “Turkey Bend” at 7 p. m. Found the officers and men we left at Morganza on guard there, on a steamboat, with all our baggage, bound for White river, Arkansas.

SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from a Soldier's Diary, p. 133-4

Brigadier-General Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, December 13, 1863

Headquarters First Br1gade,

Fourth Div., Seventeenth Army Corps,

Department Of The Tennessee,

“Camp Kilby,” Miss., Dec. 13, 1863.

My Dear Wife:

My command has been ordered from Natchez and thrown to the front. I am encamped farthest to the front and close to the enemy's lines near Black River. In a future letter I will send you map upon which you can locate my position. The country is very wild and broken, and has always been sparsely inhabited. It is now wild and desolate in the extreme. I am upon a chain of bluffs cut up by the most extraordinary fissures. The subsoil has no tenacity, not sooner does the upper crust give way than the substratum dissolves like sugar, making the most hideous chasms and rents. The soil is bare and apparently barren save where the forest is undisturbed; but this is only in appearance, for here the best cotton has been grown.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 345

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, April 26, 1863

CAMP BEFORE VICKSBURG, April 26, 1863.

My Dear Brother:

To-morrow I start with my corps to bring up the rear of the movement against Grand Gulf, and, maybe, Jackson, Miss. I feel in its success less confidence than in any similar undertaking of the war, but it is my duty to co-operate with zeal, and I shall endeavor to do it. ...

Grant came down by river, and his entire army, about seventy thousand, is now near here, but the whole country is under water, save little ribands of alluvial ground along the main Mississippi and all parallel bayous. One month ago my proposition was to fall back upon our original plan, modified by the fact that Yazoo River could be entered by its head and could be used as far down as Greenwood, which is the mouth of Yolobusha. If our gunboats could have passed that point, a real substantial advantage would have been gained, for it would have enabled the army to pass the Yolobusha, whereas now it is a serious obstacle like the Rappahannock, and will have to be fought for. . . .

McClernand’s corps marched from Milliken's Bend along a narrow road to Carthage. McPherson has followed, and I start to-morrow. Sixty thousand men will thus be on a single road, narrow, crooked, and liable to become a quagmire on the occurrence of a single rain. We hope to carry ten days’ rations with us. Seven iron-clad gunboats and seven transports have run the Vicksburg batteries; with these we can reach Grand Gulf below the mouth of Black River, whence there is a road to Raymond sixty-five miles, and Jackson. The destruction of this road isolates Vicksburg. Now if we can sustain the army it may do, but I know the materials or food, forage or ammunition, cannot be conveyed on that single precarious road. Grant has been opening a canal from the Mississippi to Willow Bayou, three miles, and Willow Bayou roundaway and Bayou Vidal form a connected channel for forty-seven miles, terminating at Carthage, but it is crooked, narrow, and full of trees. Large working parties are employed in removing trees, but at best it is only calculated that it can be used by scows drawn by small steam tugs. It is not even contemplated that the smallest transports can navigate it. The canal itself is far from being done. I went through it yesterday in a small boat, and estimate it will take one month to give it eight feet of water with the present stage, but the water in the river is now falling rapidly. We count on another rise in June from the Missouri, but these rises are accidental and may or not come. The great difficulty will be to support an army operating from Grand Gulf. ...

Between the two choices open to him I far prefer Grenada. One is sure and natural, the other is difficult and hazardous in the extreme. There is no national or political reason why this army should be forced to undertake unnecessary hazard. It is far in advance of Hooker, Rosecrans, or Curtis. We have done far more than either of these armies, but have encountered more calumny and abuse than all. . . .

Banks is afraid even to attempt Port Hudson, and from all I can hear is more likely to be caged up in New Orleans than to assist us against Vicksburg. . . .

Affectionately your brother,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 201-3