Wednesday, 11th–I was in a detail of a hundred men, with my corporal’s squad, to go out on cattle guard. We had to herd about a thousand head of our beef cattle. At noon we were called in and our regiment, together with the Twentieth Illinois, was ordered to strap on our knapsacks, strike our [...]
Tuesday, 10th–We had an all day rain, and there was no drill or dress parade. The country around Clifton is very rough. There are but a few small farms, found only in the bottom land. Clifton is on the east bank of the Tennessee river about twenty-five miles below Savannah. The town has been burned [...]
Monday, 9th–The weather is warm and pleasant and things are growing fine. The order of the day in camp is as follows: Reveille at 4 o’clock, roll call and breakfast call at 6, doctor’s call at 6:30, guard mount and company inspection from 8 till 9, company drill 9 to 10, dinner call and roll [...]
Sunday, 8th–All is quiet. We had dress parade this evening and an order was read to the effect that the troops should drill two hours a day in company or skirmish drill, and besides that, the recruits should drill four hours a day; also that there are to be four roll calls a day, and [...]
Saturday, 7th–Our new wedge tents were issued to us this morning by the quartermaster, and we worked all day pitching the tents and building bunks. I was on fatigue duty as corporal, in charge of a squad of men cleaning the grounds. We have a fine camp at this place with very good water. The [...]
Friday, 6th–Our boats tied up for the night, but early this morning, at 4 o’clock, we continued our journey. The river is deep and narrow here, which with the high bluffs, makes it a dangerous place for bushwhackers, but we were not molested on the trip. We reached Clifton at 3 o’clock in the afternoon [...]
Thursday, 5th–Reveille sounded at 4 o’clock and by daylight we were on the boats. At 8 o’clock we started up the Tennessee river, our destination, we suppose, being Clifton, Tennessee. Our fleet consists of eleven transports and two gunboats, one of them in advance and the other taking the rear, so that if we should [...]
Wednesday, 4th–We lay here all day awaiting the boats. Nathan Chase, a veteran of our company, got into trouble with some men of the Fifty-third Indiana Regiment and one of them shot him twice, one ball going through his right arm and the other taking effect in his mouth, but neither wound is dangerous. The [...]
Tuesday, 3d–We remained in bivouac all day. The transports did not return today as expected. The recruits of the Eleventh Iowa were formed into a battalion and drilled twice a day, by Captain Kelly of Company D. We had our first dress parade this evening, since returning from furlough, and the regiment looked well in [...]
Monday, 2d–We left Cairo at 1 o’clock in the night and arrived at Paducah, Kentucky, at 10 o’clock today. We were sent here to reinforce the troops at this place, as it was reported that the rebels, thought to be Forrest’s command, would make a raid into Paducah for the purpose of destroying our supplies. [...]
Sunday, 1st–The Eleventh Iowa signed the pay rolls this morning for two months’ pay. Six of the boys were robbed of $30.00 last night. Our regiment drew the new rifles and accouterments this afternoon. The Government is fitting out all of the veteran regiments with new equipments. We received orders this afternoon to go on [...]
Saturday, 30th–The Eleventh Iowa was mustered today for pay. The regiment numbers about six hundred men present for duty, and but few are absent on account of sickness. General McPherson is having his entire corps (the Seventeenth) armed with new Springfield rifles, and our regiment today turned over to the quartermaster the Enfield rifles and [...]
Friday, 29th–It is quite cool and cloudy, with some rain this afternoon. The Ohio river is rising fast. The veterans keep arriving daily at Cairo. The Seventeenth Army Corps is being reorganized as fast as possible and sent up the Tennessee river and landed at Clifton, and is then to march across to Huntsville, Alabama. [...]
Thursday, 28th–It is cloudy and misty, and suffocating smoke is settling over our camp at times—and there is no end of mud. There is no news of any importance and we lay in camp all day, with no drill or dress parade. We are expecting orders to board the transports for Huntsville, Alabama. I went [...]
Wednesday, 27th–It rained all day and there is no end of mud in our camp, which is on very low ground. Cairo is improving very fast, a great many buildings having been erected since this war broke out. The veterans still keep coming in on every train; the Eighth Iowa arrived today. About two thousand [...]
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 [...]
Monday, 25th–And still it is raining! Reveille sounded at 5 o’clock this morning and we strapped on our knapsacks and all accouterments, and at 7 o’clock marched to the station, where we boarded the cars and started for Cairo. We bade old Iowa farewell, perhaps never to return, for in the course of the coming [...]
Sunday, 24th–It is raining again—there is nothing but rain and mud. Company B is now in camp and we received our pay today, including $50.00 of the new bounty. I got $63.00 in all. We received orders to be ready to move in the morning at 6 o’clock, and go to Cairo, Illinois. It rained [...]
Saturday, 23d–Company E reported for duty this morning, and in addition ten recruits. Our regiment has more than one hundred recruits. We signed the pay rolls this forenoon, and were expecting to receive our pay, one month’s, but as Company B has not yet arrived in camp, the paymaster withheld the pay. I swapped watches [...]
Friday, 22d–I started with Uncle John this morning for Davenport, but one of his neighbors, Mr. Lathrop, soon overtook us and as he had to go to town anyway, I rode with him and Uncle John returned home. I reached Davenport by noon and went to the Davis House for my dinner, after which I [...]
Thursday, 21st–This is a warm, pleasant day and I bade farewell to my home folks and friends and started back to the army, my thirty-day furlough being almost up. I went on horseback, brother John going along as far as Allen’s Grove, to Uncle John Moore’s to remain over night, while John returned home, taking [...]
Wednesday, 20th–I remained at Mr. Sparks’s over night and coming home this morning stopped at the postoffice. I got a letter from Thomas R. McConnoll, my bunk-mate and one of the non-veterans whom I left at Vicksburg. The non-veterans are all at Cairo now awaiting our return.
Tuesday, 19th–I attended a party last night at Mr. Ray’s and did not get home till daylight this morning. William Green and Jeremiah Argo came home with me for breakfast and left for Camp McClellan. Green is one of the veterans of Company E and Argo is a recruit for the same. The weather is [...]
Monday 18th–I stayed at home all day. Father finished sowing his wheat today. John D. Moore with Henry Clark left this morning for Davenport to go into Camp McClellan—Clark is a veteran of my company, while John is a recruit for the company. Jason Sparks could not go with them on account of having the [...]
Sunday, 17th–It is cloudy and quite cool. There was some rain today, but toward evening it cleared off and became quite pleasant. I attended church at the Sparks schoolhouse, where the few members of the Christian church in this settlement have organized a church. They have prayer meeting and communion every Sunday at 10 o’clock, [...]