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the doomed man then kneels or sits on his coffin, when twelve men are drawn up in a line, whose guns are loaded by other parties, six having balls in them and six none. The squad is commanded by a Lieut. and at his command, they all fire, and none knew who killed him.At the time Dale was executed, we had four men in our Regt. under sentence, to wit: Skeen, Wich and Dale, brother of the one named above, and the other, I have forgotten his name. Though afterwards Wich made his escape. The guard shot at him, but without effect. The others were afterwards pardoned.
About this time, we moved camp a short distance, at which place, some members of our Company were marched up and down the dress parade line, as a punishment for desertion. Myself being one of the guard.
Here Col. [William Beck] Ochiltree resigned. He made us a speech and left. Here also Gen. [James M.] Hawes took command of our Brigade, and we serenaded Col. Young, our former Commander.
At this place, I was put on out-post guard three times, as a punishment for not being at roll call in the morning.
About this time we moved south of Pine Bluff four miles. Named the place Camp Bee. Here Gen. Hawes came down upon us with a vim, with his old army discipline, which was very coarse for us new soldiers, and we kicked right sharply, and laid a plan to run him off, but like all other soldier plots, it failed.
At this place, we heard of the death of John Meek. I never visited him but the one time named above -- such are the cruelties of war, that one can not be with their relatives when they sicken and die.
Early in the spring, fourth of March I think, we took up the line of march for Ouachita City [Louisiana], via Monticello and Hamburg, the former the county seat of Drue [Drew], and the latter Ashly [Ashley] counties, Ark. Here we found the kindest people we had seen.
At Monticello, I was detailed to help load division commissary wagons with meal, which was deposited in a doctor's office, then unoccupied save by the meal and a small box. After finishing our task, we looked into the box and found it contained a human skeleton -- the first I had ever seen.
From here, we traveled south until we struck Bayou Bartholomew, thence down the meandering of the stream to its confluence with the Ouachita River, at which place is Ouachita City. Here we went aboard the boats, bound for Monroe, La. Our Regt., the 18th, went down on the Dr. Deaty. This was my first steamboat ride -- very pleasant. We landed on the Trenton side, opposite Monroe. Sometime that night, after getting aboard at 3:00 in the day. We remained there the next day and night, then embarked for Trinity City, which is situated at the confluence of the Ouachita, Little River and Texas [Tensas]
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Bayou, which forms Black River. The 18th Regt. together with Gens. Walker and Hawes, embarked aboard the B. L. Hodge, which had a cannon mounted on her bow; and the order was for our boat to be one mile in advance, and in case we ran upon the enemy, or his fleet, the cannon was to be fired, as a signal to the other thirteen in the rear. Accordingly, we had almost reached Trinity City, when a courier overtook us by land, and informed us that the Federal fleet was at the said Trinity City, waiting our approach; consequently, as soon as Gen. Walker could dictate a dispatch to his superiors, we turned about, and the boat hove up stream. We had gone but a little way when we came in sight of the first boat in rear, which, as soon as they saw us in retreat, began to turn around, without waiting any information or orders, and so did the whole fleet, which were wild with excitement, both soldiers and boatsmen; but after many threats from Gen. Walker, he got them quiet enough to explain the cause of our retreat. Many ludicrous stories were afterwards told upon the officers of other Brigades and Regts., such a Col. Filpots [Benjamin A. Philpott] ordering his men to throw their rations of bacon into the furnace for fuel, and when told that the bacon was all exhausted, told them to heave in their greasy haversacks. And offering his services to the pilot to help turn his wheel, which, when rejected, he mounted the chicken coop on the hurrican deck with his spurs to urge the boat forward. After all the confusion and excitement, we landed again at Trenton sometime in the night. This place is in the west bank of the Ouachita River, opposite Monroe, La. The object of the expedition, was to run down the Ouachita to the mouth of Little River, then up it to within eighteen miles of Alexandria [Louisiana], fall below the enemy which were at that place, which we would easily have done, had they not anticipated our object, and compelled us to run back to Monroe, thence to Camte [Campti], an overland route of a hundred and ten miles, thence to Alexandria by water. When on arriving, they had been gone but two days.I had read of Washington's welcome into Trenton, in the war of 1776, but from the idea I could draw from history, I do not think they excelled the citizens of Alexandria in receiving Walker's Division. Ladies, old men and children ran to the shore, waved their hats and handkerchiefs, and wept for joy. Many of the careworn soldiers wept also.
On this trip from Pine Bluff, that I have just described, we lost a man named William Pucket -- died at hospital at Monroe, La.
At Alexandria, we did not disembark, but ran down some thirty miles to Snaggy Point, landed, took up the line of march immediately in pursuit of the enemy, in the direction of Simsport [Simmesport], La., to which place we arrived the second day. But the enemy had already embarked on their boats, and we could not pursue them farther, and we retraced our steps to Snaggy Point, and again got aboard boats, and returned to Alexandria. This time we landed on the opposite side from the town -- cooked several days rations, and marched in an easterly direction to Little River, a distance of twenty miles, as well as I now remember. Went aboard the boats again, ran down that river to its mouth at a place called Trinity City, thence up Tensas Bayou as far as a boat could go, landed on the right bank. This was on the 4th of June 1863 as well as I remember.
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On this trip there was a collision between the boat that we were on and one returning that had been up with a load of soldiers. It being empty, the guard ran over ours, and wounded one man severely and several slightly.[The 18th Texas Infantry was assigned to harass Union forces on the Western side of the Mississippi River in support of Confederate defense of Vicksburg. (Davis 1999)]On the day we landed off Tensas Bayou, June 4, 1863, the other Brigades who had preceded us made an attack upon the Federal gun boats in the Mississippi River, below us, with little effect, or damage, to either party.
The morning of June 5th, we took up the line of march in a northeasterly direction through the Palmetto swamp, cutting a road as we went. On the afternoon of June 6, at 3:00 o'clock, we arrived at Richmond, La. Soon we received orders to cook three days rations and be ready to move in a few hours. We moved off at dark, in the direction of Vicksburg. Our Brigade, commanded by Gen. Hawes, passed Gens. McCullouch's and Randall's Brigades; marched all night, and until 10:00 o'clock a.m. on the 7th, when the object of our march was disclosed. We were drawn up in order of battle in front of Young's Point on the Mississippi River, five miles above Vicksburg, on this side. At which place there was a very large camp of Federals (which were convalescents I have since learned). We advanced cautiously, driving their skirmish line before us to within a few hundred yards of the camp, when Gen. Hawes espied some gunboats in the river and ordered a retreat, which was done, after a great many awkward and confused commands from Col. [David B.] Culberson to his Regt. After we had gained the woods, the gunboats shelled at a terrible rate in the direction of our retreat, but with no damage. The day was extremely warm, and the men suffered severely from heat. Had only one man wounded, captured eight prisoners.
The order of the day was for us to attack at this point, and Gen. McCullouch's Brigade to attack four miles above at Molligan's [Milliken's] Bend, and Gen. Randall's Brigade was held in reserve to support either. After our retreat, it was found necessary to reinforce Gen. McCullouch who had made a very unpropitious assault, in which he lost many of his best men, and accomplished nothing.
Col. [John H.] Burnett's Reg't. associated with some Cavalry, made a simultaneous attack at Lake Providence, -- their loss, if any, was slight. After resting a while, we began to retrace out steps in the direction of Richmond, traveled until night, halted at sun up, having gained our point, after marching two days and nights without sleep, and maneuvered in line of battle several hours; and besides, our rations, like all other three day rations, grew short. There are bounds to human power, which was proven in this instance -- the enemy's scouts approached within a short distance of where we had halted to rest -- we were aroused, thrown in order of battle, and required to remain in place, either sitting or standing; but notwithstanding the danger, a majority of the soldiers were asleep in a few minutes. A scout of our Cavalry was sent out to ascertain their object and force, but returned without information. We yet had four miles to go, to reach our supplies, and the officers seeing the complete exhaustion of the men, ordered the train back to haul the most of the army to camp. I failed to wake up and get a position in a wagon, and had to