We had a short game of ball this morning, but Buttons got mad and broke it up. Negroes are coming in very fast. We had dress parade at 5 o'clock, after which a game of ball. To close the scene Bill Lowe and Ragan had a fight. The river has risen over two inches a 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. 42
The long expected opening in the levee was made this evening, amid the shouts and cheers of the two divisions. The water was let through in two places, each about two feet wide. The heavy clay banks melted away rapidly. Along in the night we heard heavy cannonading.
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. 45
The cut has washed about one hundred feet since yesterday. The water in the ditch is rising fast.
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. 46
Cloudy, looks like rain. Cleaning up and ditching our camp was the order of the day. I was on the detail to dig a ditch on each side of the camp. The banks of the ditch are slowly washing back. It is now about one hundred and fifty feet at the first levee, and two hundred at the second. Water is slowly rising in both the ditch and the lake. The President has given deserters until April to report at a certain depot. Co. K expects about four back.
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. 46
The water rose in the canal so that it ran up into our camp in the night. It washed away the trees that were rooted up yesterday. The channel is smooth and a good boat could go through it. One year ago today we left Winchester, Virginia, on our march for Manasses Junction. Part of Providence was burned this afternoon. The few citizens and Negroes whom the raise of the water had overtaken, were wading in the streets, waist deep, trying to save what things they had left.
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. 47
We had orders to draw and cook one day's rations early this morning. The water rose a good deal last night, and nothing but a small temporary levee keeps the camp from being inundated, and that is being washed away. The cattle and mules are all being driven higher up.
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, pp. 47-8
We had a hard storm last night, with heavy thunder. This afternoon some miserable fellows set fire to some buildings, among them a church. Such men should be sent to Alton. The channel is deepening and widening, and the water is rising. It is now about two feet above our camp. I expect some dark night to be wading out to our transports, and that right suddenly. The news came last night that a number of Farragut's fleet were at the mouth of the ditch, below Vicksburg, and that he had taken Warrentown with all its ordinance. Gen. Carr's division went down on transports today.
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. 48
We had a lively time last night. A storm of rain and wind began about 10 o'clock in the evening and kept up until about 12, when the wind increased and the rain ceased. Out tent bent and reeled like a willow. I got up to dress before she went over, but had just got my legs into my trousers when down she came full tilt. I finally extricated myself, seized my knapsack and started for dry ground, got into the commissary and spread down, when to cap the climax the levee broke through and the water came rushing in upon us. The drums beat, the boys fell in, and we had a general move up the levee. Most all of the tents blew down and some of them were whipped nearly to pieces. In the meantime Captain Bush had his Negro brigade out, filled them up with whisky, and ordered them into the water waist deep. By dint of perseverance and hard work they succeeded in stopping the break. I took up some boards and passed the remainder of the night beside the cotton pile. This morning the effects of the storm were everywhere present. One of the boats was blown up on the beach, the smoke stacks of two others were blown away, and shanties everywhere were blown down and torn to pieces. It continued cold and windy all day. Charlie Berry came back last night. This afternoon Gen. Smith's (John E.) division came down and anchored here for the night. In the afternoon some of the boys of the 14th made a break on the sutler's stock. It was no more than done when the 17th and 95th Ill., 1st Kan., and 16th Wis. came rolling over the levee. Canned fruit, boxes of boots, shoes, oysters, oranges, lemons, bales of shirts, pants, socks, drawers, barrels of soda crackers and sugar, boxes of raisins, and in fact everything which the large stock could contain. He had just got in a new assignment, valued at somewhere near $10,000. The poor old fellow ran around wringing his hands and wishing he had staid in "Chicago." The guard arrived just as they had him completely cleaned out. I can say that my hands are clear of such wholesale robbery. At 9 o'clock roll call the companies had orders to deliver up the contraband articles in their possession.
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, pp. 49-50
Our division was
inspected today by Major Strong, Inspector-General. Ours was the first regiment
inspected. We had a thunder shower in the afternoon and an awful one last night
and this morning. Our tent leaked like a sieve. The river is rising very fast.
The bank is being leveled to keep the water out of the canal. We had dress
parade this evening.
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. 41
We mustered and had
regiment inspection this afternoon. Major Peats of Co. K complimented the
troops quite highly on their clean guns. The ground is drying off fast. The
river is still rising. There is much sickness, and about two burials take place
every day. The "Rocket" came up tonight, bringing Gen. McPherson. I
heard an adjutant-general say that the Rebs had sunk the "Indianola.”
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, pp.
41-2
New prisoners report favorable progress by our armies. Yesterday there
was a powerful rain lasting ten hours. In this part the soil is red and hard,
surface flat, and water stood from two to four inches deep. We stood up all
night to keep out of it. Those too feeble to do this, were drenched and
drowned. It was with great physical and mental effort that I was able to endure
the strain as I have been feeble several days.
Four crazy men have been wandering through camp several days. I noticed
one today without any clothing, having been naked for two weeks. He lay within
four rods of the south gate, arms extended, exposed to the sun, in full view of
everybody. His whole body was blistered, his countenance frightfully distorted,
giving utterance to unintelligible sounds, frothy matter oozing from his mouth
and nostrils, his eyes appearing blind. Another prisoner shot through the hips
last night by a guard. One lay near the brook delirious, burning with fever;
another near him was unable to speak; one-half buried in the swamp, covered by
a mass of maggots and flies. Those who brought him out said his eyes, ears,
nose and mouth were filled. Near the sink, in almost every passage, lay
half-rotting skeletons, evincing all the signs of deprivation and symptoms of
pestilence, and yet alive. All of this and I have not been out of my usual
course. Neither do I mention those who have a slight covering
to turn the sun. There are hundreds who would require the best treatment to be
saved, and perhaps could not be saved. In this absence of medical treatment we
resort to simple means to cure ourselves. A very limited supply of red root and
white gum bark can be found, on our new lot, and pine bark, which are used to
check the almost universal complaints, diarrhoea, dysentery and urinary
troubles. I observed several men today had buried their limbs to the knees, as
a remedy for scurvy. But the truth is there is no remedy for this condition under
the circumstances. Never could we imagine anything so horrible! We might write
volumes, and fail to describe the horrible reality. Our people would disbelieve
it, and "pooh" as if it were a fabulous tale. Tonight some have a
season of prayer near us. One or two most excellent prayers were offered,
prayers that would grace pulpits, bearing an earnestness of the soul's
devotion. It seemed so much like home, like steadfast faith and adoration, a
reflex of the all-reaching Providence, that we felt it good to be there; that
hearts are still alive, the finer sympathies not entirely stifled. How much
better to see men in such communion, seeking consolation from heaven, than to
see them worse than brutes, or fighting demons! No rations today.
SOURCE: John Worrell Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a
War Prisoner in Andersonville and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864,
p. 83
To-night almost the
entire valley is inundated. Many tents are waist high in water, and where
others stood this morning the water is ten feet deep. Two men of the Sixth Ohio
are reported drowned. The water got around them before they became aware of it,
and in endeavoring to escape they were swept down the stream and lost. The
river seems to stretch from the base of one mountain to the other, and the
whole valley is one wild scene of excitement. Wherever a spot of dry ground can
be found, huge log fires are burning, and men by the dozen are grouped around them,
anxiously watching the water and discussing the situation. Tents have been
hastily pitched on the hills, and camp fires, each with its group of men, are
blazing in many places along the side of the mountain. The rain has fallen
steadily all day.
SOURCE: John
Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, pp. 70-1
These mountain
streams are unreliable. We had come to regard the one on which we are encamped
as a quiet, orderly little river, that would be good enough to notify us when
it proposed to swell out and overflow the adjacent country. In fact we had
bragged about it, made all sorts of complimentary mention of it, put our tents
on its margin, and allowed it to encircle our sick and wounded; but we have now
lost all confidence in it. Yesterday, about noon, it began to rise. It had been
raining, and we thought it natural enough that the waters should increase a
little. At four o'clock it had swelled very considerably, but still kept within
its bed of rock and gravel, and we admired it all the more for the energy
displayed in hurrying along branches, logs, and sometimes whole trees. At six
o'clock we found it was rising at the rate of one foot per hour, and that the
water had now crept to within a few feet of the hospital tent, in which lay two
wounded and a dozen or more of sick. Dr. McMeens became alarmed and called for
help. Thirty or more boys stripped, swam to the island, and removed the
hospital to higher ground-to the highest ground, in fact, which the island
afforded. The boys returned, and we felt safe. At seven o'clock, however, we
found the river still rising rapidly. It covered nearly the whole island. Logs,
brush, green trees, and all manner of drift went sweeping by at tremendous
speed, and the water rushed over land which had been dry half an hour before,
with apparently as strong a current as that in the channel. We knew then that
the sick and wounded were in danger. How to rescue them was now the question. A
raft was suggested; but a raft could not be controlled in such a current, and
if it went to pieces or was hurried away, the sick and wounded must drown.
Fortunately a better way was suggested; getting into a wagon, I ordered the
driver to go above some distance, so that we could move with the current, and
then ford the stream. After many difficulties, occasioned mainly by floating
logs and driftwood, and swimming the horses part of the way, we succeeded in
getting over. I saw it was impossible to carry the sick back, and that there
was but one way to render them secure. I had the horses unhitched, and told the
driver to swim them back and bring over two or three more wagons. Two more
finally reached me, and one team, in attempting to cross, was carried down
stream and drowned. I had the three wagons placed on the highest point I could
find, then chained together and staked securely to the ground. Over the boxes
of two of these we rolled the hospital tent, and on this placed the sick and
wounded, just as the water was creeping upon us. On the third wagon we put the
hospital stores. It was now quite dark. Not more than four feet square of dry
land remained of all our beautiful island; and the river was still rising. We
watched the water with much anxiety. At ten o'clock it reached the wagon hubs,
and covered every foot of the ground; but soon after we were pleased to see
that it began to go down a little. Those of us who could not get into the
wagons had climbed the trees. At one o'clock it commenced to rain again, when
we managed to hoist a tent over the sick. At two o'clock the long-roll, the
signal for battle, was beaten in camp, and we could just hear, above the roar
of the water, the noise made by the men as they hurriedly turned out and fell
into line.
It will not do,
however, to conclude that this was altogether a night of terrors. It was, in
fact, not so very disagreeable after all. There was a by-play going on much of
the time, which served to illuminate the thick darkness, and divert our minds
from the gloomier aspects of the scene. Smith, the teamster who brought me
across, had returned to the mainland with the horses, and then swam back to the
island. By midnight he had become very drunk. One of the hospital attendants
was very far gone in his cups, also. These two gentlemen did not seem to get
along amicably; in fact, they kept up a fusillade of words all night, and so
kept us awake. The teamster insisted that the hospital attendant should address
him as Mr. Smith. The Smith family, he argued, was of the highest
respectability, and being an honored member of that family, he would permit no
man under the rank of a Major-General to call him Jake. George McClellan
sometimes addressed him by his christian name; but then George and he were
Cincinnatians, old neighbors, and intimate personal friends, and, of course,
took liberties with each other. This could not justify one who carried out pukes
and slop-buckets from a field hospital in calling him Jake, or even Jacob.
Mr. Smith's
allusions to the hospital attendant were not received by that gentleman in the
most amiable spirit. He grew profane, and insisted that he was not only as good
a man as Smith, but a much better one, and he dared the bloviating mule
scrubber to get down off his perch and stand up before him like a man. But
Jake's temper remained unruffled, and along toward morning, in a voice more
remarkable for strength than melody, he favored us with a song:
Ho! gif ghlass uf goodt lauger du me;
Du mine fadter, mine modter, mine
vife:
Der day's vork vos done, undt we'll see
Vot bleasures der vos un dis
life,
Undt ve sit us aroundt mit der table,
Undt ve speak uf der oldt, oldt
time,
Ven we lif un dot house mit der gable,
Un der vine-cladt banks uf der
Rhine;
Undt mine fadter, his voice vos a quiver,
Undt mine modter; her eyes vos un
tears,
Ash da dthot uf dot home un der river,
Undt kindt friendst uf earlier
years;
Undt I saidt du mine fadter be cheerie,
Du mine modter not longer lookt
sadt,
Here's a blace undt a rest for der weary,
Und ledt us eat, drink, undt be
gladt.
So idt ever vos cheerful mitin;
Vot dtho' idt be stormy mitoudt,
Vot care I vor der vorld undt idts din,
Ven dose I luf best vos about;
So libft up your ghlass, mine modter,
Undt libft up yours, Gretchen, my
dear,
Undt libft up your lauger, mine fadter,
Undt drink du long life und good
cheer.
SOURCE: John
Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 58-62
About the twenty-fifth of January, Major Johnson, with his detachment, leaves Bonniventure, and joins the regiment at Fort Brown. Receiving marching orders, General Corse, with his division, who were now isolated and alone from the corps, leaves Savannah, marching up the Savannah river as far as Sister's Ferry, where we find Gen. Slocum struggling with the floods. We remain here until the fourth of February.
SOURCE: abstracted from Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 293
McNairy moved his
battalion from Camp Schuyler, about thirty miles north, to Huntsville, the
county seat of Scott County. This was the day of the noted “Big August"
freshet. It rained so much that our wagon train did not get to Huntsville until
next day. We took shelter in the court-house.
Companies A and D
were detached on the 25th und sent back to Camp Schuyler.
SOURCE: Richard R.
Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee
Confederate Cavalry, p. 37
The writer and a few others were sent to a gap in the mountain, about twelve miles north of Huntsville and within three miles of the Kentucky line, to watch for a Federal paymaster whom Madame Rumor had said would pass through that section. We had only been stationed a few hours, however, when Colonel McNairy, having received orders to move to Jamestown the next day, sent for us to return to camp immediately, though, on account of rain and high water, we remained at Huntsville three days longer.
Scott was rather a
poor county, and as the people were mostly “Union,” they were not willing to
divide rations with “Rebs”; therefore we suffered more for want of rations
while at Huntsville than anywhere else during the war, while in camp.
