Sunday. Turned out about 1 o’clock A.M. & got into line. We supposed that we were to make another Sunday attack but after moving out by Gen. Banks; Headquarters to the road leading into the place of last Sunday’s battle we filed to the left instead of the right, & pursued the main road to the east till 9 o’clock, when we halted at a little stream some six or eight miles out on the road to Jackson. Here the provision trains came up bringing cooked rations. Stopped & ate a hearty meal, probably for breakfast & dinner together. We have with us the 12th Me., 90th, 91st, & 131st N.Y. & 1st Louisiana with several field pieces & a small cavalry force. Where we are bound we know not. Supposed to keep off reinforcements for the enemy in Port Hudson.
Our mail reached us while halted for dinner. Got a letter of June 1st from Pamelia.. All well at home at that date. I thank my Heavenly Father for all his mercies. After eating moved up a hill beyond the stream, & filed into a field on the right of the road, 7 stacked arms. The men lay down & some of them got asleep, when in about an hour the order came suddenly to “fall in.” The whole Brigade fell in quickly & moved in line of battle some hundred rods across the field to the front. Our Reg’t. was on the second line on the left, the 1st Louisiana on the right. The batteries were quickly stationed in the front, & we awaited the signal to advance, expecting an immediate attack. Not a gun was fired, however, & we lay in line about an hour, when a small shower coming on, we sheltered ourselves as well as we could in our rubber blankets. Afterwards we made shelters of the rubbers by spreading them on little stakes, & lad down under them. I made a roof of mine by spreading it over three small poles, bent over with both ends set in the ground. Spread my woolen blanket under it, crawled in, & slept nicely, undisturbed by the showers that came in the night. Pickets of cavalry & infantry were out, but there was no alarm given.
Just before night quite a force of the Illinois cavalry came in. The same I presume that were reported captured by the rebels yesterday. Quite a lot of forage teams came with them, & moved back towards Port Hudson.
Diary of Isaac Winslow Case [Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection]