Most of us, when we turned in last night, thought by the time we went on deck this morning, we would be far from land. We were mistaken. The steamer had only gone as far as the Roads, where she anchored.
About five o'clock this morning we made the final start for the war, unless Davy Jones shall have a mind to claim us. There are a few boats; but then there are, besides our regiment, about 500 of the 3d Mass. Vols., Col. Richmond, making about 1500 men in addition to the ship's crew. Sea voyages, as we are taking this one, are anything but pleasant. We know nothing of what is going on, and are very much crowded, in what would be good quarters for half the number. But the boys cannot appreciate this any more than they can to see the beef, which we are to eat, dragged across the deck, which, in the neighborhood of the horse stalls, is not very clean.
SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, p. 14
