I was detailed to the charge of a squad of men to guard
rebel prisoners in the corral at Logan's headquarters. They were not hard to
guard, for they think themselves in pretty good hands, and surely they seem to
get better grub here than in their own lines. Some of them are deserters, and
upon such I look with contempt. I am ready to share my rations with an honest
prisoner, but have no use for a man who enlists in a cause, and then deserts
his comrades when they get into a tight place.
If what they say is true, the garrison over there is already
familiar with mule meat and scanty meal rations. If they have had to eat mules
such as we have killed in the trenches, I pity them, for they are on a tough
job. Several cows which I suppose had served families there with milk, we had
to kill for browsing too close to our lines.
I am pretty well convinced Pemberton would not hold out much
longer but for the help he expects from Johnston. If that, however, is all the
hope they have, they might as well surrender at once, for if Johnston should
come, he can not do them any good.
A ball struck a little drummer boy a while ago, and he
limped off, whimpering: “I wouldn't care a darn, but my other leg has been shot
already.” Some of the boys went to his assistance, and then they had to hurry
towards the hospital, for the rebels got range of them and began firing quite
briskly.
I was quite amused to see one of the prisoners brought in
today, eating his supper. We gave him all he could eat, and that was no small
amount. But he was certainly a very hungry man, and if he is a fair sample of
those remaining in Vicksburg, Uncle Sam's commissary will have to endure quite
a burden, for after the surrender, no doubt, Grant will have to feed them all.
_______________
* This projectile, as shown in No. 1, is composed of a
cast-iron body. The expanding portion is a papier-mache wad, which being forced
onto the cone, is expanded into the rifling of the bore. On issuing from the
bore, the wad is blown to pieces, leaving the projectile entirely unincumbered
in its flight through the air (No. 2.)
SOURCE: Osborn Hamiline Oldroyd, A Soldier's Story of the Siege of
Vicksburg, p. 55-6
