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

Sunday, 25th–We moved up the river today about a mile and disembarked on the Louisiana side, going into camp right on the bank. We are from ten to fifteen feet below the water in the river, while the levee is twenty-five or thirty feet higher than our camp. Company E was to go on picket, but the order was countermanded, and then at dark a detail of one thousand men, I being one, from our division, was chosen to go down the river to work on the canal which is being cut across the point of land opposite Vicksburg. It is a fearful mudhole to work in. A large number of negroes are put on the job. The rebels try to shell the place, but their shells all fall short.