APRIL 18. Saturday. Warm and pleasant. Our brigade is ordered down the river for review. It was supposed to be done for Gov. Yates, but he did not arrive, and McArthur took us through, the same as the day before. I think we did slightly better than we did the other time. A little after dark we had an awful storm of wind and rain. I got up and dressed, thought surely the tent was going over, but it was all right. APRIL 19. Sunday. We got four months’ pay today--no pay was deducted. I expressed home $55 and Frank sent $45. APRIL 23. Thursday. On picket at the Negro quarters of the 8th La. Leavitt volunteered to stand my guard. We got orders this evening to prepare three days’ rations for a foraging expedition up the river. Capt. Wheeler went home today. APRIL 24. Friday. We boarded the “White Cloud” this morning and started up to Greenville, where we arrived in the afternoon. A regiment had just boarded transports and started below. We lay there until after dark, then started and landed toward morning, about seventy-five miles above Greenville. APRIL 25. Buck took Fox, Boggs and I outside the pickets and we went up about two miles to a fine plantation where we got a lot of butter, a knife, some forks, a chicken, and all the sweet milk we could drink. We found the overseer’s account book hidden in an old chicken coop with some other things. At night the chickens, goats, sheep and hogs came in by wholesale, together with a lot of beeves. The object of our expedition was to obtain Negroes and supplies. APRIL 26. Sunday. Twenty-one years old today. How my mind carries me back to those good old times when I used to welcome this day of all others, when my sister, aunts, and grandpa composed the family circle. What a change! That good old man whose memory I revere and cherish, is gone, and the old place is sold. On picket today. Mosquitoes are very thick. APRIL 27. It rained this forenoon. We started back about 1 o’clock and arrived at Lake Providence. Found orders there awaiting us, to leave in the morning for Vicksburg. I took a good wash and went to bed. The river is rising very fast. The Captain commanding the expedition did not want us to take off our live stock, but the boys threw them overboard and secured them as they swam ashore. APRIL 29. Wednesday. Making out muster rolls today. We had dress parade at 5 o’clock. The “Edward Walsh” came up this morning for the 95th and us. We are to return to Stevenson’s brigade. Stevenson is now Brigadier-General. We expect warm work shortly. The river is falling rapidly. It is a number of feet below where it was in the spring when we first came down here. I was walking on the bank this evening when whom should I see but Coon, the little Negro who used to cook for Capt. Williamson. A new iron clad boat and hospital boat went down the river yesterday. I wrote two letters today, one to Rosalie, and one to George Butterfield.