Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

Post image for Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Alexander G. Downing.

Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Alexander G. Downing.

November 10, 2013

Diary of Alexander G. Downing; Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry

Tuesday, 10th—I was on a detail of two hundred men with one hundred teams to haul the commissary supplies and ammunition from the transports to the storehouses and magazines constructed near the new forts. It is heavy work, and as to handling the ammunition, quite dangerous. General Grant has given orders that Vicksburg must be well fortified and supplied with munitions and provisions, and that it must be held against all possible attack, for it cost too much to obtain it, besides its being a point of the greatest strategic importance.

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