Haines Bluff, Miss. Once
more on land, and glad are we of the change. We arrived at the mouth of the
Yazoo at ten o'clock yesterday morning, six miles from Vicksburg, and, turning
upstream, came to anchor at this place, fifteen miles from its mouth, at 12 m.
We had a perilous
voyage down the river. It would seem, on looking back on the dangers through
which we were safely carried, that a power higher than man's had been exerted
in our behalf. To say nothing of the guerillas, three times were we in imminent
danger of being "blown up." Once nothing but a miracle—men called it
luck—saved us from capsizing; once we were driven on shore by a hurricane on
the only spot, so said our pilot, where we could by any possibility have
escaped being wrecked.
Part of our
division, two days in advance of us, has reported at Vicksburg. Two divisions
of the Ninth Corps are here, the other—the Third—is at Suffolk, Virginia. The
place we now occupy was lately in possession of the Rebels. It is strong by
nature, and has been made still stronger by man, but those terrible little
gunboats made it too hot for secession, and they left in haste, leaving part of
their baggage, a few horses and cattle, and even poultry, which our boys found
skulking in the bushes. Of course, they arrested the cowardly creatures and
brought them into camp.
The inhabitants have
all left, driving their stock with them, and burning what furniture they could
not carry.
The face of the
country is rough and broken, quite as much so as Maryland and Virginia. Spite
of Jeff. Davis' prohibition, I find much cotton planted in this part of
Mississippi, but it will not come to much unless Uncle Sam soon gives it in
charge of his colored children, who literally throng our camp. I wish I could
describe the beauty and grandeur of these forests, but to be appreciated they
must be seen. That which gives them their greatest charm is the long, wavy,
gray moss which hangs suspended from every limb, from the smallest sapling to
the mighty, towering oak. Wild plums and blackberries, large and luscious,
abound and are now in season. Figs will soon be ripe. Among other things, good
and bad, fleas and woodticks are in evidence.
SOURCE: David Lane,
A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 52-3
