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

Tuesday, 18th–We were relieved from picket this morning. It looks pretty bad in walking the streets of Vicksburg to see the destruction caused by our shells. Many buildings are completely demolished, while others have great holes made in their walls—I counted as high as ten holes in a wall. I noticed a shell lying in the bottom of a cistern, whose fuse must have been put out when it struck the water and so it only knocked a hole in the wall, but it drained the water out of the cistern.