Lay in the rifle pits all night. Could hear Smith in the
night shelling the Reb transports during the night. Were relieved at 8. A M.
& march the co to camp, have a chance to send out mail at 10. I write in a
hurry a letter home. Alexander Moore, who has been guarding at the wharf was up
today & reports the Monitor Milwakee to have been raised, but another
Monitor lies over a torpedo which they are trying to remove without exploding
it, one man lost his life by fooling with a torpedo which had been taken out.
Capt Ledyard hurt himself last night while inspecting the picket line & is
ordered to the rear by the Doctor leaving the co in my charge, P. M. am told
the torpedo exploded in the bay & sunk the monitor which was on it. Boys
busy all day building bombproofs to get into where the enemy begins to shell
us. There was a vigorous shelling kept up all day. After getting to bed was
waked by the Adjt who brought me a detail for the co to go out at 3 A. M. to
the paralel about 100 yds to rear of the skirmisher for a support to them
SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa
Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923,
p. 582-3
