April 6th. Arrived towards evening off Fortress Monroe, and came to an anchor amidst an immense fleet of transports loaded down with troops. The following morning, the 7th, we weighed anchor, and with the fleet, steamed to Ship Point, on the northern side of the Peninsula, between the York and James rivers, ran in shore under easy headway until the vessels grounded, then let go the anchors, and prepared to land.
There were no docks, nor any preparations made for landing in the regular way, and I was quite interested as to how the thing could be done; the vessel being at least a hundred yards from shore, and, as our horses were on board, to an ordinary mind it did not seem an easy undertaking, but the steamer’s people soon made a sort of floating foot path with boards, supported by empty barrels anchored at intervals, which extended from the vessel to where the water was about two feet deep. The men were ordered to disembark over this indifferent pathway, and on reaching the end of the boards, jumped right into two feet of water and waded ashore. When the men were all off, the horses were stripped of their saddles, and bridles, backed to the edge of the deck, and shoved overboard, much to their disgust, but the plan worked famously, and on our boat there were no mishaps of any kind. Alongside of us were a number of vessels loaded with cattle, and they too, were unceremoniously dumped overboard in swarms, causing immense fun, many of the steers making very pointed objections to the operation; once overboard, they swam in a bee line for the shore, and were there collected and corralled.
This place is a low sandy point, covered with scrub pines, and intersected with many creeks, which the men soon discovered to be filled with delicious oysters. There are only two houses in the neighborhood, apparently inaccessible without a boat to cross the creeks. Soon after we landed the brigade was ordered inland about a mile, and there bivouacked for the night.
