e. They had had three or four
dreadful experiences in charging earthworks and yet these men were
willing to assault those same earthworks again.

June 26th. There has been considerable bombarding on account of the
Rebels opening some big guns but I think they are doing very little
damage. We heard today that the enemy had driven our army across the
Potomac and that there was great excitement throughout the North. We
hoped that the report was false. Last night I was detailed to go on
picket being sent out to an outpost about a mile from the reserve. We
stood by our arms most of the time during the night. There was brisk
firing on our left most of the time.

June 27th. Came in from picket. Today we have been reviewed by
Major-General Banks. He made a temperance speech to us. I think he must
have thought that we were getting to be a pretty tough set of fellows.
I don't see how he could have thought that, when we couldn't get very
much that was intoxicating, only what quinine and whiskey Uncle Sam
issued to us when we came off picket duty.

July 1st. There has been a reason for my not writing in my diary for a
few days. We had been told that no soldiers' letters could be sent
North and I put off writing in the hope that I could record the fall of
Port Hudson, that Rebel stronghold. But still the siege drags slowly
along. Our days were divided between rifle-pits and making assaults.
The Rebs hold their rifle-pits and we advance ours or remain
stationary.

Yesterday, the colored brigade carried a hill by storm and have held
it, notwithstanding the great effort made by the Rebels to regain it.

Sunday, July 3rd. We attacked Port Hudson at two points, but were
beaten back with great loss. The battle still rages and omnipotence
still holds the scales in equal balance. This is the 25th day of the
siege and we are still stuck outside the fortification. Last Sunday we
made a general assault. We got inside three times but for want of
support were driven back. Men were mowed down on our right and left. It
was a wonder how I was preserved. I have been in four direct assaults
on the breastworks, several skirmishes and yet not a scratch have I
received.

Port Hudson, July 4th, (Independence Day). As will be seen, we had no
idea of what was going on more than two hundred miles up the river at
Vicksburg, or fifteen hundred miles at Gettysburg. At Vicksburg,
General Grant was quietly smoking a cigar when he wrote a dispatch to
be s