Left Cairo on the Steamer Illinois. The Gun Boats 5 in
number and 4 mortars taking the lead for Columbus, at which place we arrived at
about 11 O'clock. The Ills. 2nd cavalry had occupied the place & the Stars
and Stripes were floating from the fortifications. After disembarking, the 27th
headed by our noble Col. marched to the stirring notes of Yankee Doodle &
Dixie, up the levee & the hill to the fortifications on the Bluffs. This
place where nature & art had made the Gibraltar of America would have cost
the Government an immense number of lives & treasure before succumbing to
the American arms, after viewing the stupendous works and the different modes
of destruction which the Rebels had invented to destroy the Northern Barbarian
and Yankees as they term them, Such as torpedoes & infernal machines which
they had burried in the earth promiscously as far back in the country and as
far up & down the river as the fortifications extend Each one connecting by
wire with a magnetic Battery by which they were to be exploded.1
After seeing all there was to be seen we marched back down to town where we went
into quarters Col. Buford taking his qrs. in town at the Columbus Bank a nice
Brick Building. Our Col. commanding is Lieut Col. Harrington he has taken his
qrs. near the Regt. in a large 2 story house formerly the Head Qrs of the Rebel
Gen. Pope. There is quite a change with weather this afternoon turned colder
Col. Buford has assumed command of the Post. A portion of our Regt have taken
up their qrs. in the rebels barracks built of logs and a portion are encamped
in tents.
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1 See the report of Flag officer, A. H. Foote,
Mar. 4, 1862. War Records, Series I., vol. VII., p. 436. In part he reports as
follows: "Columbus is in our possession. My armed reconnaissance on the
2nd caused a hasty evacuation, the rebels leaving quite a number of guns and
carriages, amunition and a large quanity of shot and shell, a considerable
number of anchors, and the remnant of chain lately stretched across the river,
with a large number of torpedoes. Most of the huts, tents, and quarters
destroyed. The works are of very great strength, consisting of formidable teers
of batteries on the water side and on the land side, surrounded by a ditch and
abatis."
SOURCE: Transactions of the Illinois State
Historical Society for the Year 1909, p. 236
