Thursday, 21st.—Sharp-shooters pegging away. W. F. White slightly wounded in head by Minnie ball; heavy cannonading all day.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Thursday, 21st — Early this morning, at 6 o’clock, we moved up the river and entering the Yazoo river we reached Haines’s Bluff, where we landed and stacked arms. Here we remained several hours awaiting orders. General Sherman has just taken Haines’s Bluff and now is uniting with General Grant’s forces in surrounding Vicksburg. At 4 o’clock we again took boat, returning down the river to Young’s Point, where we landed, and marching across the point again took the boats. We passed on down the river below Vicksburg to Warrington, Mississippi, where we landed, and marching out about five miles, went into camp for the night.
May 21. — Started James for Washington to get me some mess things. Egbert and I began our mess to-day. Went over to General Barnes’s in the afternoon, and saw the presentation of a sword, etc. The affair passed off very successfully. The lieutenant colonel of the 118th Pennsylvania made the presentation speech, and General Barnes answered, reading from manuscript. General Meade, General Benham, and all the officers of the brigade were there. The good things of this life were there in abundance. All kinds of punches, champagne, etc., were freely circulated. The grounds were beautifully decorated with flags and banners. Over the entrance were two American flags, with two white flags with the coat-of-arms of Massachusetts intertwined. I got back to camp about 10 o’clock, having stopped on the way at General Sedgwick’s. Weather warm and pleasant.
Mrs. Lyon’s Diary.
May 21.—Colonel Lowe has gone away and left William in command of the post. I hope we will not have a scare.
May 21, Thursday. Had an early call from the President, who brought a communication from Tassara to Seward, complaining of violation of neutral rights by a small pilot-boat, having a gun mounted amidships and believed to be an American vessel, which was annoying Spanish and other neutral vessels off the coast of Cuba. The President expressed doubts whether it was one of our vessels, but I told him I was inclined to believe it was, and that I had last week written Mr. Seward concerning the same craft in answer to Lord Lyons, who complained of outrage on the British schooner Dream, but I had also written Admiral Bailey on the subject. I read my letter to the President. He spoke of an unpleasant rumor concerning Grant, but on canvassing the subject we concluded it must be groundless, originating probably in the fact that he does not retain but has evacuated Jackson, after destroying the enemy’s stores.
It is pretty evident that Senator John P. Hale, Chairman of the Naval Committee of the Senate, is occupying his time in the vacation in preparing for an attack on the Navy Department. He has a scheme for a tract of land with many angles, belonging to a friend, which land he has procured from Congress authority for the Secretary to purchase, but the Secretary does not want the land in that shape. It is a “job,” and the object of this special legislative permission to buy, palpable. Hale called on me, and has written me, and I am given to understand, if I do not enter into his scheme, — make this purchase, —I am to encounter continued and persistent opposition from him.
Hale has also sent me a letter of eight closely written pages, full of disinterested, patriotic, and devoted loyalty, protesting against my detailing Commodore Van Brunt to be one of a board on a requisition from the War Department for a naval officer. Van Brunt has committed no wrong, is accused of none, but Hale does n’t like him. I replied in half a page. I will not waste time on a man like Hale.
Painting by Conrad Wise Chapman.
The 59th Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in Virginia’s western counties for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia, and in the Carolinas. (Wikipedia)
Thursday, May 21st.
I left with Decca Stark. There was no incident worth mentioning between Columbia and Winsboro. We met Stark Means at the depot. He is in fine health and only limping a little from his wound. Chester, Charlotte and Raleigh all larger and more city-like than I expected. We passed Concord and Salisbury at night. It is twenty years since last I saw any of them, and my sweet mother was present then. I was a boy nine years old. I recollected leaving a whip on the mantlepiece of the Charlotte Hotel at that time, and I have never forgotten it. Mr. Crist, at Gott’s Hotel, in Salem, made this whip for me. I am now at Raleigh, and since I am separated with my friends (perhaps forever) I wish I was with old Company E.
21st. Played some chess with Thede. Beat Chester two games. Thede and I one apiece. In the afternoon issued rations of sugar and coffee. Pork, bread and beef in the evening. In the evening two papers came, Independent. Commenced letter to Sarah.
Thursday, 21st—We came this evening out to where the others were; Yanks in New Row; so we could not go there. Came to Widow Bodge’s. Five of boys went on; two slept in bushes; I and Jim Berryman slept in house.
MAY 21ST.—We were relieved this morning before daylight, and slipped back to our camp as quietly as we could. The rifle pits where we watched were pretty close to the enemy, and we had to note every movement made by them. If they put their heads above their works we sent a hundred or more shots at them, and on the other hand, if any on our side made themselves too conspicuous, they fired in turn. So each army is watching the other like eagles. We must be relieved while it is yet dark, for if such a move were attempted by daylight, the enemy could get our range and drop many a man.
The weather is getting very hot, but we do our best to keep cool whether out of battle or in it. It is fortunate for us that our work at the rifle pits occurs at night, when the air is much more cool and pleasant, and the services less fraught with danger. Last night quite a number of new pits were opened and gabions placed on them. Firing from behind these was attended with leas danger. Gabions are a sort of wicker-work, resembling round baskets, filled with dirt. The rebel fort in our front was made by cutting away the back half of the hill, leaving the face towards us in a state of nature. This fort is supplied with large guns, but their owners can not use them, as our rifle pits occupy higher ground, from which we watch them too closely.
