Thursday.
Turned out & got breakfast before daylight. Our boys had dug a “bean hole” before night, & for breakfast had a fine lot of baked beans. Started at 7 & marched down through the same rich country that we have been passing through for two days. Reached Thibodaux, quite a pretty village, about noon, but made no stop there. Saw huge piles of baggage that had been landed from the steamer. Kept on to the R. R. Station, three miles distant, & camped in a field a little to the south of it. This was the hardest day’s march of the three, & several of my Co. dropped behind & sat down by the woodside between Thibodaux & the camping ground. I could not blame them, for we were hurried along at an unreasonable pace. The last four miles I carried the knapsack of one of my men, & the last two miles the gun of another. I was glad when we got the order to halt, though I could have gone further without giving out! I went & had a pretty thorough wash, & felt better for it. My feet have stood this three days march wonderfully—have not raised a blister or chafed the skin in a single place, while many of the men have very large blisters on the bottoms of their feet that give them great trouble & pain. Sergt. North has gone very lame today, tho’ he never complains.
About sunset we had orders to pack up & be ready to take the [railroad] cars in ten minutes! We struck & rolled up tents, & got ready to go, but were at last ordered to pitch them again to start at 6 in the morning.
Had a good nights sleep, but the men got up rather tender footed, and went limping about camp as they have not been obliged to do before.
Diary of Isaac Winslow Case [Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection]
Wednesday. No beef has yet arrived for the Regt., & only pork & bread enough are on hand for the day, so at present two days cooked rations are out of the question. Sent for storage the box of Co. cooking utensils & my large mattress, so that we now have nothing on hand but what we are to take with us when we march. A small mail arrived from N.O. bringing Northern dates of the 26th of March, but there was nothing for me from home. Rec’d notice from the Marine Hospital, New Orleans, of the death there, on the 27th of March, of Stephen S. Buzzell, of consumption, & of the discharge from service of Albert Brown, on the same date, on surgeon’s certificate of disability.
