Diary of Major Joseph Stockton, April 24, 1863

Detailed as provost guard at Richmond. This is one of the prettiest places I have yet seen. We are encamped on the property of a Mr. Anderson, a cousin of the General Anderson of Fort Sumter fame. Mr. Anderson voted against secession and for Bell and Everett, but is now a secessionist and says there is no such thing as a unionist in the South. Headquarters tent is pitched in his garden and surrounded by flowers which are in full bloom. It is so different from what it is at home. The air is so soft and balmy that I feel like resting all the time.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 13

Diary of Musician David Lane, July 29, 1863

Haines Bluff. We did not leave on the 23d, as was rumored, but are still in our old camp, enjoying a short season of repose preparatory to our voyage up the river. It is a repose much needed by our men. What prompted our commander to hurry us through as he did sixty miles in three days—I cannot conceive. Strict orders were issued against straggling. No man would be allowed to leave the ranks without a written pass from the Surgeon, and all stragglers were to be picked up by the Provost Guard and taken to headquarters for trial by court martial. The General "reckoned without his host." Some men, so great was their respect for discipline, marched in the ranks until they fell, in a dying condition. But most of them cursed the General and his orders and sat down to rest and cool off whenever their judgment told them they were getting too hot, and, when rested, came on again.

After the first day, no attention was paid to orders. Men fell out in such numbers the Provost could not arrest them, and came straggling into camp until nearly morning.

The next morning after our arrival, in the Seventeenth alone, one hundred twenty men were reported unfit for duty, and forty-five are now sick in hospital. Doubtless much of this sickness is the effect of the poisonous liquid we were compelled to use for cooking and drinking purposes. How grateful to us, then, is the delicious, sparkling water that flows in abundance from that romantic spring I described on our first arrival. Before I leave this subject, let me record our experience the week we were encamped before Jackson. The first day we used cistern water, but that soon failed. After that, all that was left for coffee and for cooking purposes was water from an artificial pond, scooped out in a barnyard, and all the battery and camp horses—five or six hundred of them in number—were watered there every day. They were ridden right into the pond! Rather than drink it, I have been three miles to the rear, after having been on duty all day, for a canteen of cistern water.

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 71-2

Diary of Private Seth J. Wells: November 27, 1862

We received orders to pack up and be ready to move down town this morning, where we were to be quartered and remain as provost guard. We marched down about 8 o'clock and secured our quarters. Sixteen, including Frank and myself, took a room upstairs in an old grocery with an old stove. During the day we fixed our bunks and got some benches from a church close by, and by night had things quite comfortable. LaGrange comes nearer to being like a northern town than any other I have seen in the South.

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. 13-14

Major Charles Wright Wills: February 20, 1865

Sixteen miles northeast of Columbia,

February 20, 1865.

The Provost Guards were the last to leave town. Fifty families of Columbians accompany us; have no idea how many negroes. Hard day's march.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 351