age which I certainly have
never forgotten, after having such an experience as I had on a vessel
crowded to its utmost capacity and a deck passage at that.

December 19th. We have cleaned up, washed our clothing and are drying
it upon our backs, thereby saving the trouble of hanging it on the
bushes to dry.

December 20th. We received our rifles and now I suppose we shall have
to put on our accoutrements and get right down to drilling in the
manual of arms.

December 21st. I was on guard for the first time at Camp Parapet. I am
beginning to find out that camp life in Hartford, Connecticut, was
quite different from camp life of instruction at Camp Parapet, La.

From this date I shall omit many of the dates and unimportant events of
camp life, as one day we drill the next have inspection, so every day
brings us many troubles.

Christmas Day. We don't expect a very elaborate dinner. No doubt we
shall be thinking of the good things our friends and loved ones are
having at home. Such was a soldier's life fifty years ago.

December 30th. Wrote a letter to mother and put some small magnolia
leaves, a magnolia bud, a live oak, a cypress and several other
varieties into it which I have in my possession to this day. I had an
exquisitely fine sympathy with vegetable life in all its forms and
especially with trees.

I wrote at that time: "The country charms me with its magnificent lemon
and orange groves. The trees are perfectly bowed down with their weight
of fruit. Upon my word, I am in love with the Sunny South. I think when
this cruel war is over and I can find my affinity, I shall settle down
in this beautiful country for life. But I am not thinking much about
that just now, for the girls are not much in love with the Union
soldiers. The ladies here wear secesh cockades in their bonnets and it
is really amusing to see the curl of the lip and the contempt of
countenance with which they sweep by us. Of course it is no wonder,
when we take into consideration the way they have always lived, and
thought that they were fighting for a just cause."

The object of our expedition was to cooperate with General Grant in the
reduction of Vicksburg, but General Banks did not know until he arrived
at New Orleans that Port Hudson was fortified and manned by almost as
large a force as he could bring against it, or that fifty miles west of
New Orleans was a force of five or six thousand men ready to move on
the city and cut his lines