I cannot refrain from speaking right here of our first surgeon, Dr. Alden Skinner, who went out with the Twenty-fifth Regiment. For it was at Camp Misery that Dr. Alden Skinner, father of Town Clerk Francis B. Skinner, contracted a cold that developed into pneumonia and resulted in his death a short time later. Dr. Skinner, after whom the Rockville Sons of Veterans named their camp, was a highly respected Rockville physician, who went with us down into that Rebel stronghold in 1862, as many in town will remember. He was a man of many noble qualities. I knew him personally, for I had lived with him one winter when I attended school in Rockville. I felt it a great personal loss, as well as a loss to the regiment when he died. I desire to express myself at some length relative to this good man who gave his life for our country's cause fifty years ago about March 30th, 1863. He was very kind to me when we were encamped at Baton Rouge and especially when that thunder shower came up, as we were marching back from our first advance on Port Hudson. This experience was on Sunday, March 15, 1863. Dr. Skinner was on horseback and I can see him now in memory, as he was in that drenching rain, wet to the skin, as all were. That was the last time I ever saw Dr. Skinner, for he died a few days after in the hospital at Baton Rouge. He was brought home and was laid to rest in our beautiful Grove Hill Cemetery. March 16th. It cleared off very pleasant this morning. Had breakfast of hard-tack and coffee. We had orders to march, about three o'clock in the afternoon. We marched about ten miles and went into camp on the bank of the Mississippi River. We managed to get some fence rails, build a fire and dry off, I was so drenched it took me nearly all day to get thoroughly dry. I felt much happier upon this old cotton plantation, for it was about as pleasant a place as I had seen in Louisiana. We were situated on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, which spread out before us like a broad lake. The banks were lined with live-oak, and back of us were dense forests. Hardly had we arrived when I was detailed to go on guard duty. Pretty rough on a fellow who hadn't slept any for about forty-eight hours, but most of us were in the same predicament. We were a pretty sleepy set to go on guard but we had to stand it, two hours on and four off, until morning, when our cavalry were driven back upon us without loss. At three o'clock, I was relieved and lying down on the ground I slept like a stone till eight o'clock when the new guard came on. Here let me say, that the thunder storm we had on a Sunday afternoon was very likely the means of saving many lives, as the Confederates, when they found that we were retreating, turned out infantry, cavalry and artillery and pressed hard upon us but the rain Providentially deterred them. The Thirteenth and Twenty-fifth Connecticut Regiments covered the retreating column.