Thursday, 3d—The Eleventh Iowa went out on picket duty. I was on guard at division headquarters, my post being in a large orchard, and my orders were to keep all soldiers out of it.[1]
[1] Such orders soon got to be a joke with the men, they in a quiet way giving the commanding officers to understand that they did not go down South to protect Confederate property. In a short time all guards were taken from orchards or anything which the men wanted for food.—A. O. D.