Tuesday, 26th–We stopped at Centralia this morning for breakfast, and arrived at Cairo about 5 o’clock in the evening. Our regiment received new tents, and marching up the Ohio, we went with our non-veteran comrades into camp just above Cairo. There are about twenty thousand troops in camp at this place, and a large expedition is being fitted out here, to start in a few days, but there is no certainty as to where it is going.[1] Most of the Seventeenth Army Corps is camped here awaiting orders. It is being reorganized and fitted out with Springfield rifles and cartridge boxes.
[1] The expedition was fitted out for the campaign against Atlanta, under the command of General Sherman.—A. G. D.