Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Alexander G. Downing.

Sunday, 25th–This is a cloudy, cool day and a lonesome Christmas. We are on one-third rations now and poor prospects of getting more soon. We still have plenty of rice, although in the hull, so we can get along. Large foraging parties were sent up the Savannah river to obtain rice straw for our beds and they brought in large quantities of rice still in the sheaf to feed the horses and mules. There are some very large rice plantations along the river and there is a great deal of rice not yet threshed. We had company inspection this evening. All is quiet.