Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray, 1861-1865 Page: 72
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72 Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray, 1861-1865.
as twelve months volunteers and after we had been in service for this
length of time we were requested to take the oath for three years or dur%ing
the war. About this time I took the measles. Nearly all the boys
ent back to Virginia. It was the next winter before I was able to go
again. Our first regiment was the Second Louisiana and the next I was in
was the Twenty-Seventh Louisiana Regiment. I was sworn in on March
10, 1862, near the same park, Lafayette Square, New Orleans. We were
not shown the same kind treatment we had received on the former occasion.
War was getting old. We were in New Orleans but a few days when
we went on to Tangipahoe and while there New Orleans fell into the hands
of the Federals. History gives a true account. Our command had no arms
and we were at Tangipahoe and were badly neglected as we
had nothing to eat. You know New Orleans was in trouble. Our Colonel,
Campbell, made a detail of eight or ten men to go out in the country and
they soon brought in beef and meal. By this time soldiers by the thousands
came in from New Orleans with supplies by the train load. We were
then armed with good, new Springfield rifles and ordered to the assistance
of Albert Sydney Johnston at Shiloh, but before we got to Jackson, Miss.,
the fight had been pulled off and our orders were changed and we went to
Vicksburg, Miss. Our regiment was one thousand and one hundred
strong and we were the first on the ground for at least a week. Island No.
10 had been evacuated and Vicksburg was the last stand which was held
for fifteen months on the north side and Port Gibson for about the same
time on the south side. Now we had a time. I mean all sorts of a time at
old Vicksburg. God bless old Vicksburg and her true blue citizenship, her
high hills and Cherry and Mulberry streets. I never knew any place as well
as I knew Vicksburg. Our regiment lost many of its men there before we
were captured on the 4th of July, 1863.
Our first camp near Vicksburg was in a hollow near a branch and many
of our men took sick from using branch water and a number died; John
Garner, my brother-in-law, among the number. Our company at one time
was 128 strong and not more than twenty were able for duty and it was
found that the "town boys" could stand the hardships better than those
raised in the country. It was not long before Porter's fleet hove in sight
from down the river and others also dropped anchor and demanded our surrender,
which was refused. Well what next? We had not seen any firing
and had not heard a cannon. There stood six or eight war vessels in the
middle of the river for several days, so one evening while we were on dress
parade and Col. Marks was taking us through the manual of arms, bombswish-swish.
I was looking at Col. Marks and he was standing as still as
a stump. He had been at Bull Run, but we boys-. "Steady battalion,"
roared Col. Marks. Then we all wanted to run down behind that steep hill.
As for myself I did not care for the noise of the guns, but the "swish" oi
the cannon balls cutting the air around us told on my nerves and I don't
think I am particularly of a nervous temperament, but that bombardment
continued for two months and we got used to it and in fact expected it. It
was a kind of amusement, beginning at about four or five o'clock in the
evening, lasting till about ten at night and beginning again next morning
at about four. The Yanks could see our camp, so we moved about three
miles on the upper side of town, but they managed to get a shrapnel right
into our camp and killed a mule and wounded a negro cook. Some little
cast balls hit the tent I was in and rolled down at my feet. The citizens
moved out of town beyond the range of the fleet and camped. Some dug
holes in the ground and others tunneled into the hills. I saw one nice
family living in a culvert under the railroad with the creek running within
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Sketches of several hundred Confederate veterans, residing in Texas after the Civil War, giving particulars of their war service.
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Yeary, Mamie, 1876-. Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray, 1861-1865, book, 1912; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth29786/m1/83/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.