A veteran of the Peninsula campaign, Second Bull Run, and Fredericksburg, Captain Charles B. Haydon was a company commander in the 2nd Michigan Infantry. In March 1863 his regiment was transferred from Virginia to Kentucky, and in mid-June it was sent up the Yazoo River fifteen miles from Vicksburg to help guard against a possible Confederate attempt to relieve the city. Haydon recorded his impressions the day after his arrival at his new post.
JUNE 20, 1863 We are really down South—Latitude 32° 20′, a degree south of Charleston, on a line with the great desert of Africa. Everything looks new and at this point not very pleasing. The hills are not high but the ground is in all conceivable shapes & so full of ravines as to be almost impassable. The water is brackish & bad, very bad. The woods are oak, basswood, sycamore, cottonwood, magnolia, palmetto &c. They are so full of underbrush, briars, nettles, poisonous weeds and such like that it is very unpleasant & difficult to get through them. The trees are loaded with the long grey Southern moss which hangs from the limbs in clusters & sheets from 2 to 10 feet in length (perpendicular) and swings loose in the wind. This gives to everything a sort of dull sombre appearance. It looks old, very old, as though everything was on the decline.
Canebrakes such as we buy at home for fish poles are very abundant & are used by the men for almost everything. There are some alligators, a good many snakes, lizards everywhere, plenty of mosquitoes, flies, bugs, tarantulas, horned frogs & other infernal machines too numerous to mention. I have not been far into the woods. I went up to the edge once to day & very cautiously looked in a little way then walked off. I am not much afraid of snakes but I do not wish to provoke any unnecessary collision. They say that in the woods snakes & lizards tumble down on your head every few steps but could not swear to that. There are blackberries & wild plums in abundance, ripe & inviting.
There was terrific firing at Vicksburgh this m’g commencing before daylight. How I wish we could go down to the front where there is something doing. I saw Lt. Col. May and several other acquaintances from Michigan.
Our Regt. got very drunk on the way here. Moore and Montague had their hands full with Co. E. I have had experience enough in loading drunken soldiers onto boats & cars. They act like devils. If they should act so when sober it would not take long to adjust matters but in this case you have to tolerate some things which you would not at any other time. The men know perfectly well that as a rule the officers want to get drunk as bad as they do & that if it were not for the responsibility & their presence they would.
Still I do not believe that many of them would drink much after they had been out of the army a few days. A soldier never knows one day where he may be the next & his hold on the future being so uncertain he crowds the present to the utmost. “Eat drink & be merry for to morrow you die.” I know by experience how powerfully those words appeal to the desires & if I do not indulge in wine as others do I presume it is only because other things please me more.
After some months of hard fare you arrive in a city. There is no one there who knows you except comrades who never tell tales. You have money & opportunity. Everything within you says there is no law or restraint here. Do as you please. “Let joy be unconfined.” It may be your last chance. Everyone seems to think you are doing exactly right & to be anxious to help you in all your undertakings. Be careful & you will meet your Chaplain or hear his voice in the next room. But enough of this. Those who have tried it know all about it & those who have not can never learn from mere description.
There must be an increase of sickness if we remain here long. I am not much afraid of disease but can see the possibility of hard times ahead. The darkies are jubilant. “God bless Massa Lincum” say they all. They do nothing now but gather blackberries & plums to sell together with their master’s property to soldiers. I saw a planter try to stop one who threw down his hoe & was walking off. He called out to him “where are you going?” “Oh I’se gwine to ’list—yah, yah, yah” was the reply & off he went & three others after him.
Their employment as soldiers is looked upon here with much more favor than in the Army of the Potomac. They are pretty well posted & are nearly all anxious to fight. It is thought here that they will make good soldiers. I find that my late journey amounts to about 2000 miles & that of the Regt. to about 1200 miles. There is no further need of troops in this vicinity.