The 14th we got a very early start but it soon began to rain and very soon we were wading in red sticky mud. We ate our dinner, well sheltered from the rain, in another country church, and at night we got quarters in a deserted plantation house. There we got supper and made our coffee in an old fashioned fireplace. We also, at least two of us, slept on a bedstead like white folks that night, but the bed bugs perforated us numerously. We were then 30 miles from Jackson and 14 miles from the advance of Grant's army. During the night the enemy molested our pickets and we got out to the tune of the long roll, but no blood was shed. The 15th we continued our march to Raymond, arriving there at 2 o'clock p. m. There we halted an hour and visited our wounded friends and acquaintances of the 20th Illinois, then at that point, who had been wounded that day in the battle of Raymond, after which we pushed on 8 miles farther to Clinton and made our camp in the college grounds on the hill. At Clinton we found and paroled a large number of rebel sick in hospitals. Our boys visited the sick and wounded rebels in these hospitals and gave them crackers, tobacco and coffee or any little delicacies they happened to have, the same as they would have treated their own comrades, and many a poor sick Johnnie's eyes grew moist in those rebel hospitals because of the kindness of the Yanks to them that day. The 16th we remained in camp at Clinton until noon, and then in compliance with orders, when Steel's division came through from Jackson, we fell into his line of march and marched away towards Boulton, and camped that night within a mile of that town. I desire to mention here that in the early morning today General Grant with a few mounted attendants went through Clinton at a rapid pace towards Black river or Champion Hills. The 17th we proceeded towards Black river with Steel's division, passed through Boulton at 10 a. m., and shoved so close to a body of the enemy that our commander threw us into line of battle with ambulances close on our heels and trains trailing in the rear. But a few scattering shots resulted, however, and we arrived at Black river at 7 p. m., and there rejoined our brigade. We crossed Black river on a pontoon bridge, proceeded 2 miles farther towards Vicksburg and camped in the woods by the roadside.