Clear and pleasant. I made out the quarterly returns. For some reason they have suspended work on the cut.
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. 44
Bright and clear. Drill forenoon and afternoon. Dress parade in the evening, the same as yesterday. We had a game of baseball in the evening. I worked all day on the pay rolls.
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. 44
Warm and rainy. I arose before roll call and took a walk down to the levee. Vegetation is starting rapidly. Peach trees are just in bloom, and some are leaved out. Logan's division came down and embarked on transports during the day.
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. 44-5
The long expected opening in the levee was made this evening, amid the shouts and cheers of the two divisions. The water was let through in two places, each about two feet wide. The heavy clay banks melted away rapidly. Along in the night we heard heavy cannonading.
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. 45
Hot and sultry. I got up at reveille and went down to see how the cut prospered, and found the water rushing through, a perfect torrent. The channel had washed out about one hundred feet and is still washing. If it does not succeed, it will not be for want of water. Captain Bush went through in a yawl this morning. It was a dangerous experiment, but he came out all right. In the course of the day some of Co. A went through with the same result. Some of the boys disturbed the bricks in one of the vaults in the cemetery and exposed a cast iron coffin, hermetically sealed. The lid was moved and the head and shoulders of a man who had been dead for eighteen years were visible through the glass. It is a shame the way this cemetery has been used. The Nigs are at work putting up a temporary levee between camp and the ditch, as some of the town is being overflowed. The 11th Ill. and 14th Wis. of our division went up the river a few miles and we hear they had a fight. Logan's division started up this morning.
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. 45-6
The cut has washed about one hundred feet since yesterday. The water in the ditch is rising fast.
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. 46
Cloudy, looks like rain. Cleaning up and ditching our camp was the order of the day. I was on the detail to dig a ditch on each side of the camp. The banks of the ditch are slowly washing back. It is now about one hundred and fifty feet at the first levee, and two hundred at the second. Water is slowly rising in both the ditch and the lake. The President has given deserters until April to report at a certain depot. Co. K expects about four back.
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. 46
I was up at reveille as usual and went down to the ditch. To my surprise I saw a big oak just outside the channel washed up by the roots. The tree was about three feet in diameter. Another of nearly the same size washed out before noon. I went fishing this morning. We can see fish weighing from forty to one hundred pounds, working up against the current. I threw my spear at them, but they were too far off. I saw a laughable incident this evening in front of McPherson's headquarters. Some of the boys were trying to fasten a yawl to a tree and float down to where the fish were showing themselves in an eddy. The first time they missed the tree and went whirlnig into the center of the channel and came very near upsetting. They finally brought it to, and after a good deal of hard work, got it into position for another trial. This time they were successful, caught a projecting limb and pulled themselves into the eddy formed by rushing around the tree. After they had made themselves fast by a long rope, they undertook to get out of the eddy, which proved no easy job, for as soon as one end was pushed into the current the boat would whirl around and back up into its former position. While on the whirl it threw off one man's hat. McPherson and officers and nearly the whole regiment were out watching them, and the cheering was loud enough to raise the dead. It was nearly dark when they got out of their predicament. I worked nearly all day on the company's papers.
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. 46-7
The water rose in the canal so that it ran up into our camp in the night. It washed away the trees that were rooted up yesterday. The channel is smooth and a good boat could go through it. One year ago today we left Winchester, Virginia, on our march for Manasses Junction. Part of Providence was burned this afternoon. The few citizens and Negroes whom the raise of the water had overtaken, were wading in the streets, waist deep, trying to save what things they had left.
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. 47
We had orders to draw and cook one day's rations early this morning. The water rose a good deal last night, and nothing but a small temporary levee keeps the camp from being inundated, and that is being washed away. The cattle and mules are all being driven higher up.
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. 47-8
It rained all night. Our tent leaked like a seive. We still remain in camp but it has rained nearly all day.
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. 48
We had a hard storm last night, with heavy thunder. This afternoon some miserable fellows set fire to some buildings, among them a church. Such men should be sent to Alton. The channel is deepening and widening, and the water is rising. It is now about two feet above our camp. I expect some dark night to be wading out to our transports, and that right suddenly. The news came last night that a number of Farragut's fleet were at the mouth of the ditch, below Vicksburg, and that he had taken Warrentown with all its ordinance. Gen. Carr's division went down on transports today.
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. 48
* Blog Editor’s Note: Fanny (also reported as Annie) Wilson, a woman from New Jersey who enlisted disguised as a man and served approximately eighteen months in the Union army before being discovered during the Vicksburg campaign in March 1863.
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. 48
Two large gunboats, both ironclads, went up early this morning. Troops are passing down.
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. 48-9
We had a lively time last night. A storm of rain and wind began about 10 o'clock in the evening and kept up until about 12, when the wind increased and the rain ceased. Out tent bent and reeled like a willow. I got up to dress before she went over, but had just got my legs into my trousers when down she came full tilt. I finally extricated myself, seized my knapsack and started for dry ground, got into the commissary and spread down, when to cap the climax the levee broke through and the water came rushing in upon us. The drums beat, the boys fell in, and we had a general move up the levee. Most all of the tents blew down and some of them were whipped nearly to pieces. In the meantime Captain Bush had his Negro brigade out, filled them up with whisky, and ordered them into the water waist deep. By dint of perseverance and hard work they succeeded in stopping the break. I took up some boards and passed the remainder of the night beside the cotton pile. This morning the effects of the storm were everywhere present. One of the boats was blown up on the beach, the smoke stacks of two others were blown away, and shanties everywhere were blown down and torn to pieces. It continued cold and windy all day. Charlie Berry came back last night. This afternoon Gen. Smith's (John E.) division came down and anchored here for the night. In the afternoon some of the boys of the 14th made a break on the sutler's stock. It was no more than done when the 17th and 95th Ill., 1st Kan., and 16th Wis. came rolling over the levee. Canned fruit, boxes of boots, shoes, oysters, oranges, lemons, bales of shirts, pants, socks, drawers, barrels of soda crackers and sugar, boxes of raisins, and in fact everything which the large stock could contain. He had just got in a new assignment, valued at somewhere near $10,000. The poor old fellow ran around wringing his hands and wishing he had staid in "Chicago." The guard arrived just as they had him completely cleaned out. I can say that my hands are clear of such wholesale robbery. At 9 o'clock roll call the companies had orders to deliver up the contraband articles in their possession.
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. 49-50
Cold. The boys have turned over most of the stolen goods. Gen Smith's division started on its way down this afternoon. Gen. Grant is concentrating troops rapidly, the grand issue must be approaching, and the sooner the better. This afternoon we drew the old fashioned wedge tents, one for every four men.
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. 50
Frank, Newt, Jim Sweeny and I comprise our newly established household, and we were busy until afternoon raising and settling our tent, and building our bunks. We went out foraging last night and made a raise of boards enough to put up our tent, build our bunks, etc. This afternoon the little tug came out of the lake into the river. We are having very cold weather for the place and time of the year. We hear that Gen. McArthur has acquitted the 17th Ill. of the raid. One year ago tonight the 12th Ind. was camped at Bristo Station, and I made my unsuccessful search for Uncle Lebbeus.
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. 50-1
Near Oxford.
Pleasant and sunny. Health never better. Lost my needle book, very sorry. Received
three days' mail; had two papers and a letter from home.
SOURCE: Jenkin Lloyd
Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary, p. 19
Near Oxford. The day
was spent in the common routine of camp duties; drill in the afternoon by
infantry and artillery, presenting a lively scene. Received a [Madison] State Journal from
T. L. Jones.
SOURCE: Jenkin Lloyd
Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary, p. 19
Near Oxford. Warm and pleasant. Health excellent. Dr. Miller returned from Wisconsin in the afternoon, much to the satisfaction of all. After roll call in the evening, he appeared before the Company and made a speech, after which three cheers were given to him. Seventy-five loads of cotton brought into headquarters.
SOURCE: Jenkin Lloyd
Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary, p. 19
