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

Thursday, 13th—It is rumored that our brigade is to go to Natchez, Mississippi, in a few days, but we cannot tell whether it is true or not. I was on police duty today, for the first time, down in Vicksburg. There are more than a hundred men detailed each day to keep order in the city, and nobody is allowed on the streets without a pass from the provost marshal. We work on eight-hour shifts, and each man has a certain part of a street to patrol for two hours at a time, after which he is off duty for a period of four hours. I was on duty in a residence district, and while I was walking my beat, a lady came out of her home for an afternoon’s walk. I of course had to ask her to show her pass. I must have looked pretty fierce to her, with loaded gun, fixed bayonet and all accouterments on. I asked her kindly for her pass and she answered that she had none, whereupon I told her what my orders were; that she would have to return to her home and not come out on the streets again without a pass, or I would have to take her to the provost marshal’s office. She thanked me very politely as I closed her gate, saying that she wanted to obey orders and that she would send out and procure a pass before going on the street again. This lady is certainly experiencing war at her own dooryard, yet she showed the good breeding of the Southern lady.