10th. Tuesday. Officer of the day. Brigade Hdqrs. A pleasant ride around the lines.

Tuesday, 10th–Our division moved out to the front about five miles and went into camp again. We had to move because we had burned up all the fallen timber around our camp, while at the new camp we will have plenty. It rained quite hard this afternoon and then turned colder at night. The country [...]

January 10th.–You do the Anabasis business when you want to get out of the enemy’s country, and the Thermopylae business when they want to get into your country. But we retreated in our own country and we gave up our mountain passes without a blow. But never mind the Greeks; if we had only our [...]

January 10th.–Rained hard all night. House leaking badly! We have nothing new in the papers this morning. It is said with more confidence, however, that Butler’s canal is not yet a success. Daily and nightly our cannon play upon the works, and the deep sounds in this moist weather are distinctly heard in the city. [...]

January 9th, 1865 I had been suffering with the toothache for some days when on this day it became so bad that I made up my mind to go to the doctor and have the tooth extracted. I arrived at the doctor’s tent, he directed me to an ancient chair and asked me to show [...]

Green Square, Savannah, Ga. January 9, 1865. Thinking we for once in the service had a chance to enjoy quiet life, two of our number were sent to Hilton Head for a full supply of men’s apparel for the outer man, and of refreshments substantial and fancy for the inner. They returned to-day just in [...]

9th. Monday. Put up picket poles and policed ground.

Monday, 9th–We remained in camp all day.[1] It rained most of the day. No news of any importance. [1] I had been suffering with the toothache for some days when on this day it became so bad that I made up my mind to go to the doctor and have the tooth extracted. I arrived [...]

January 9th.–Bright, clear, and cold. It is said the government depot at Charlotte, N. C, has been burned (accidentally), consuming a large amount of corn. We have nothing further of the movement of Grant’s troops. We have Hood’s acknowledgment of defeat, and loss of 50 guns before Nashville. The papers contain the proceedings of a [...]

8th.—Some persons in this beleaguered city seem crazed on the subject of gayety. In the midst of the wounded and dying, the low state of the commissariat, the anxiety of the whole country, the troubles of every kind by which we are surrounded, I am mortified to say that there are gay parties given in [...]

8th. Sunday. Bruce got me a door. Busy with fireplace.

Sunday, 8th–It is quite cool. We lay in camp all day. We are once more drawing full rations, and it is well that we are, for there is absolutely nothing to forage here, not even rice in the hull. We have also received some of the Sanitary goods sent here for distribution. All is quiet [...]

January 8th.–Bright and cold. Snowed yesterday, and windy. Gen. Whiting writes that he had only 400 men in Fort Fisher, and it was a miracle that it was not taken. He looked for it, and a determined effort would have carried it. He says there is no reason to suppose the attempt has been abandoned, [...]

January 7th.–Rained yesterday and last night. Clear and windy to-day. It is said the Blairs (who have been looked for on some sort of mission) turned back after arriving in the camp of Gen. Grant. Of course they could not treat with this government, under existing circumstances. The President and his cabinet could not be [...]

7th. Saturday. Letter from home. Sarah Felton.

Saturday, 7th–This morning we found that during the night our ship was driven by the high wind upon a sand bar in the bay. Here we lay, a cold northwest wind blowing across our deck forty feet above the water. But we fared better than the boys below, for, on account of their being so [...]

January 7th.–Sherman is at Hardieville and Hood in Tennessee, the last of his men not gone, as Louis Wigfall so cheerfully prophesied. Serena went for a half-hour to-day to the dentist. Her teeth are of the whitest and most regular, simply perfection. She fancied it was better to have a dentist look in her mouth [...]

January 6th.–Cloudy and thawing. No war news,–but it is known Sherman’s army is not quiet, and must soon be heard from in spite of the interdict of the government. It is said Mr. Trenholm, Secretary of the Treasury, is in the market buying gold, and that the fall has already been from $50 to $30 [...]

6th. Friday. Worked on house some. Uncomfortable day.

Friday, 6th–We left our camp this morning at 8 o’clock and marched down to the coast about four miles below Savannah. At 2 o’clock we embarked on the transports for Beaufort, South Carolina. Our regiment is on board a ship built in England as a blockade-runner for the Southern Confederacy, but which was finally captured [...]

5th. Thursday. Relieved late in the day.

Thursday, 5th–The order for the Iowa Brigade to move was countermanded this morning, and we remained in camp all day. The weather has been pleasant and is quite warm today.

January 4th.–Bright, but several inches of snow fell last night. The President wrote a long letter to the Secretary yesterday concerning the assignment of conscripts in Western North Carolina, at most only a few hundred, and the appointment of officers, etc. A small subject. Congress has passed a resolution calling on the Secretary of War [...]

4th. Wednesday. Charge of picket. This morning failed to get out at roll call. Did not hear the bugle. My first failure since I have been an officer in the 2nd Ohio. A very cold windy day. Reserve at a large stone barn.