Sunday, 19th—Lieutenant Durbin and some of the boys went out scouting. They brought in a lot of corn to feed the horses; also some walnuts, hickory nuts, corn meal and molasses. The lieutenant took a “secesh” flag from a schoolma’am.
Diary of Alexander G. Downing; Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry
Saturday, 18th—Some of the boys went out on a scouting expedition, but did not meet with any success.
Friday, 17th—Warm and pleasant. Nothing of importance. Some of the boys are quite sick from the effects of vaccination, though on some of them it did not work. Mine worked fine, and some of the boys took virus from my arm and vaccinated themselves. The surgeon vaccinated a few of the boys as many as four or five times before it took.
Thursday, 16th—A squad of the boys went out scouting[1] and took one man a prisoner, besides bringing in nine mules and six hogs. They took the man to headquarters, turned the mules over to the regimental quartermaster, and the hogs we made use of as so much extra pork for the company.
[1]This was really a foraging expedition which at that time they spoke of as “scouting.”—Ed.
Wednesday, 15th—Nothing of importance. Got some more pies and doughnuts from a man and his wife who come in three times a week with them, to sell to the boys. We usually lay in a good supply.
Tuesday, 14th—Lieutenant Compton with five men went out to capture the man who fired into a passenger train last summer and killed the conductor. When the man saw them approaching to surround his house, he started to run for the timber. He refused to surrender and the men fired on him, shooting him through the thigh, but upon seeing that the man was severely wounded, Lieutenant Compton gave the order to let the man remain at his home.
Monday, 13th—Some of the boys have been getting whiskey in this locality and today Lieutenant Compton with Carl Frink and John White went to find where they were getting it, but they returned late in the evening without finding the distilling plant.
Sunday, 12th—Dr. Smith, a resident here, had his horse stolen last night. This morning Lieutenant Durbin with ten men went out to find the thief, but they returned this evening without finding him.
Saturday, 11th—Our company were all vaccinated today as a protection against smallpox. The regimental surgeon came down from California to do the work. Our captain called the company up in line, and every man had to take his medicine.
Friday, 10th—It is cool and cloudy, with some rain. We get our mail every day, as the railroad is open between here and St. Louis.
