off. They had not even seen the enemy. Poor fellows!

February 26th. It was a very rainy day and we stayed in our tents and
cleaned our muskets. Mortar and gunboats are daily arriving at this
port. We have six of the former and four or five of the latter. The
Confederate gunboats are continually making reconnoissance up the river
and occasionally give Port Hudson a taste of their shells. But most of
them give her a wide berth and I think they had better. By the way I
want to tell you how hard it was for us poor boys to get reading
matter. When the New York papers arrived they commanded 25 and 30 cents
apiece. You can see that we fellows had to go without, for we had not
received a cent of pay since arriving here. You can't imagine what it
is to be cut off from all communication from the outer world for a week
or ten days at a time as we were and during that interval hear nothing
but discouraging rumors and false reports circulated by the Rebels.

February 27th. Came off guard in a soaking rain, in a very cross state
of mind, but being neither sugar nor salt didn't melt away; but I felt
that I could stand it awhile longer if our hard-tack and salt horse
held out as well as it had and I felt it would, for I noticed that it
stood by pretty well.

Having a prisoner consigned to my tender mercy to be fed on the bread
of affliction and waters of repentance until further orders, this same
prisoner did at dead hour of night break from the guard-house and
abscond to his quarters, did there fare sumptuously on hard-tack and
salt-horse. This coming to the ears of the colonel he did get angry
with the officer of the guard and sending this same officer of the
guard a pair of hand-cuffs, did order to arrest this delinquent and
confine him in close quarters and in this performance a spirited
encounter did thereupon take place in which the offender did get upset
in one corner and the officer very nearly in the other; this criminal
being finally secured did create such a row he was forced to be gagged
and bound hand and foot.

That the weather hath proved very unpleasant for some time raining hard
most of the time when your humble servant did hope to go round and view
the pretty maidens of Baton Rouge and now that our three commissioned
officers not knowing better than to all fall sick at once and go to the
hospital, it bringeth us many cares when we had to have Lieutenant
Goodell of Company F detailed to take command of our company