head of my team, halter in hand, and did not awake till
broad daylight, within dangerous proximity to Jack's feet, but he would
not hurt his rider while asleep. Returned to camp, the scare being over.
Lay quiet all day, a heavy bombardment kept up all day. The
sharp-shooters busy picking off our cannoneers. Most of the
convalescents left at Millikens Bend returned to-day. 11th Ohio Battery
gone to Sulphur Springs with brigade of infantry.

Before Vicksburg, Thursday, May 28. Windy and cloudy. Spent the day in
eating mulberries, writing and sleeping. Mail came. Brisk cannonading in
the evening. Mortars working all day.

Before Vicksburg, Friday, May 29. The day was opened with a general
cannonading all along the line for thirty minutes, with as much rapidity
as possible. It was a sublime and terrible scene, the powder smoke
gathering in a dark heavy cloud overhead, with the shells exploding with
a continual flash over their forts, and now and then a mortar (shell)
high in air could be seen. A gentle rain fell in the afternoon. Received
twenty-five new horses from the landing. A repetition at sundown of the
morning's work, then all was quiet. Wrote to John.

Before Vicksburg, Saturday, May 30. Warm and dull. Nothing to do and
nothing to read so lay down and slept most of the day. Awake at 10
o'clock at night with orders to hitch up, and at quarter to eleven
o'clock the pieces and limbers started to the left and front, down
through the valley, past sutler shops and baggage wagons, then up a
steep bluff, where it required five teams to haul the pieces up; then
passed through the advance line of artillery and through a passage dug
in the hill, hiding us from view for about six rods, then down into an
abrupt ravine. The cannoneers obliged to hold back with prolongs to keep
it [the piece] from running down unmanageable.

We were soon at the bottom of the ravine. On the top of the hill the
pieces were to be planted. It was 3 A. M. when the artillery on each
side and behind us opened a hot cannonading over our heads, grazing the
top of the hill so close that we dared not go in position, and we lay at
the bottom while they whistled and screeched over our heads. The fiery
track of the fuze-shell could easily be tracked through the dark, and
the roar of pieces as they echoed was deafening for half an hour, when
we put our pieces in position, took the limber under the hill and
unhitched.

Before Vicksburg, Sunday, May