Page:History of the Forty-eighth Regiment, M.V.M. during the Civil War (IA historyoffortyei00plumm).pdf/60

 and six feet deep. Along nearly the whole line in front of this ditch and extending from half a mile to a mile from it was formerly a heavy growth of timber. This had all been cut down; so that in every direction the fallen tops of trees interlaced, trunks blocked up every passage and brambles were growing over the whole. Moreover, the space where this forest had stood was cut up in every direction by gullies and ravines, all containing more or less fallen timber. Under favorable circumstances, that is with a good supply of ammunition and provisions, and a garrison of 20,000 men, Port Hudson could have resisted any force that could have been brought against it.

The task of taking this stronghold fell to the lot of the Army of the Gulf, consisting mainly of the 19th Army Corps, to which the 48th M. V. M. was attached.

Two o'clock in the morning of Jan. 30, 1863. The old ship Constellation, bearing the 48th Regiment, is lying off the southwest pass of the Mississippi River and is throwing up rockets as a signal for a pilot. Presently a tug comes steaming out from the river and as daylight is breaking we leave the muddy waters of the gulf behind us, not, however, without the assistance of a second powerful tug to take us over the bar, and enter the still muddier waters of the Mississippi. For some miles the river presents no objects of interest. Low marshy shores covered with coarse sedges, fit haunts for alligators and other venomous reptiles—in all about as uninviting a place as can well be imagined. Towards noon we reach the famous Forts Jackson and St. Philip, one of which gives us a salute as we pass.

They were occupied at this time by the 26th Massa