Page:History of the Forty-eighth Regiment, M.V.M. during the Civil War (IA historyoffortyei00plumm).pdf/95

 the 19th army corps during the siege has been nearly 5,000 men. No correct account has been made of the rebel loss, but an approximate calculation will give it as nearly 1,000, which, considering that their fighting has been entirely behind breastworks, is very heavy. Port Hudson is a very strong place and would have cost us many more men to have taken it by storm. As we steamed away from the landing and gazed at the bluffs and remembered the long weeks of waiting in front of its land batteries we could but take a long drawn sigh of relief. We shall no doubt soon be sent home. Home! Can any outside the army imagine what this word means to us who have lain so many weary weeks in the swamps of Louisiana, watching the lines of the enemy with the eyes of hungry wolves, dying by hundreds, by bullet, and shell, and disease. It means friends, comfort, life itself, in exchange for misery, squallor, dirt, a dog's life, and death, and an unknown grave.

July 10. Reached Donaldsonville at 9 o'clock A. M. While on the passage down, and we were at breakfast, the steamer was fired on from the shore, but happily no one was hit. The shots were returned from the boat, but with what results of course we could not know, but we were not further molested.

After landing we made a reconnaissance till nearly dark when the regiment bivouacked for the night near the levee. The rebels have evidently drawn away their forces from the river and we shall probably have to seek them further inland.

July 11. False alarm in the night. Regiment fell in with arms, but were soon dismissed.

July 12. A steamer came up from New Orleans