We went forty miles
last night. This is a rainy day. Fortune seems to be against us when we float
the Mississippi. Our rations in the bread line since we left Bolivar have been
mostly hard-tack with cornmeal. We occasionally draw flour. The hard crackers
we draw are better now than they have been before. The boats have moved very
slowly against the current today. We arrived at Providence the middle of the
afternoon, landed above the town, and went ashore. Our company and company F
surrounded the town but caught no one. Capt. Wheeler and three or four of us
entered the Post Office and searched it. We found a few letters and papers. We
broke open the ballot box which was full of tickets voted for Jeff Davis. Abe
and I each got us a set of chess men. I got a six-inch drafting rule, also some
pamphlets giving the object and description of the K. G. C., or Knights of the
Golden Circle. Providence, before the war, must have been a beautiful town, but
now it is almost deserted. A few women and children were standing in the doors,
nearly scared to death. They scarcely knew what to expect from the long dreaded
Yankees. The Post Office is a large brick building, in the back part of which
was the equipment of the Sons of Malta. We caught no guerillas. We threw out
our pickets and slept upon the boat, Abe and I upon the hurricane deck, as
our wood pile was burned up. It was quite cool for this country, one might say
cold. We lay in the boat until the middle of the afternoon. A detail from the
brigade went out mule-back this morning on a scout. When we heard that
guerillas were out a few miles in the country, our company and company G were
ordered out. Col. Dietzler said there was no use in going farther as there were
none there, but the boys wanted a little exercise, so they took us about two
miles to a nice plantation, where we killed a lot of chickens. Gus Schultz and
I caught eight, I caught five and found some eggs. John Cumberworth, also of our
mess, got a frying pan which we needed very much. One of our boys was thrown
from a mule. It commenced raining just as we started back, and before we
arrived at camp we were completely soaked through. We were called aboard and
dropped off below town where we remained until morning. The night was very cold
and the ground was frozen quite solid. This morning there was a detail of
nearly half the brigade for fatigue. We were put to work digging away the
levees to let the water into Lake Providence, which is one mile back from the
river. There was once a channel between the river and lake in high water, but
it is dammed up. The lake makes connections with Red River through bayous.
Providence is equally divided into three parts, they are separated by the
old channel, which forms a common for the town. The town is a little higher
than the channel, but lower than the levee. The inhabitants are badly scared
and are moving out. It will all be inundated when we get the levee cut through.
The engineers say there are four feet and six inches of fall between the
surface of the river and the surface of the ground below the levee. We worked
until noon, and then another relief came on. The regiment moved down to the
boats and camped on the other side of the levee. We got a large barroom stove
for our tent. This evening there was a detail sent across the river to a large
plantation for Nigs. One hundred and forty were caught and sent to Vicksburg.
We saw peach trees in bloom today. We met Gen. McArthur and bodyguard when we were
coming out.
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. 36-8
