Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-07-31
VOL. XV--NO g.
oURaARMY CORRESPONDENCE.
e ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE, !
In front of Jackson, Miss, July 12, 1868,
THE VICINITY"

e a5. ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE, ! Z
In front of Jackson, Miss, July IL, 1sc3,5
THE VICINITY EEsssu.
I commence my present letter to the Jour-
nal not knowing whether it will ever reach
completion, and uncertain if it will gain its
destination, should it be finished. My first
uncertainty arises from the fact that we are
located exactly in the range of rebel battery
mounting 100 FOUNDER rihed guns, which scat
ters its enormous missiles around us in the
greatest profusion; and the second is the un.
ceetain condition of the road from here to
Vicksburg. Should the readers Of the Jour-
nal ever peruse the contents of these pages
they may consider Providence has had a hand
in its safe delivery. .1.} aaa fs.s.
We arrived at this camp day before yester-
day after a long and fatiguing march in which
the scarcity of water caused considerable suf-
fering. The weather is inteasly hot and this
with the parched up condition of things makes
the State Of Mississippi anything but elysian.
Water can only be got in small .(infnites-
mally small) quantities, and the lucky posses
sor of a canteen full of wretched stuff dipped
from some wayside mud hole, at times, will
not part with it for love nor money. Notwith-,
standing all these hardships the boys are in
excellent spirits and entertain not the slight
est doubts of their ability to take the rebel
army out Of jackson even should they be forc-
ed to rush in and take them out on the points
of their bayonets. Johnston has got an army
~ fko, l. ~ L., -,
yet, and never failed in accomplishing what
it undertakes. Of rebel should "gobble''
this on the road to Vicksburg, he may rest
assured of finding this assertion substantiated
before another Sunday rolls around.)
There is no use in trying to disguise
the fact, however that jackson is a pretty
tough old nut-to crack, and it is barely possi-,
BILE that we may break some of our teeth in
the endeavor to get at the sweet-meats inside.
The position is simply this: The rebels under
Johnston are in large force and well fortified,
with plenty Of good artillery; they are making
us an excellent fight, but it is so much sthe
worse for them, as the more shooting the
more prisoners. l should not be at all sur
prised if we managed in the end to make
nice little haul of "rebs' before we quit. A
prisoner whom l saw a little while ago is rath-
er skeptical upon this subject, though, and
says: 'you will get snake bit like the devil, if
you stay around here much longer" He is
too sanguine, however, by half told him we
didn't intend to stay there long; that the boys
were about out Of tobacco and would soon
make a raid into their strong hold, for the
purpose ofreplenishinr our supply. He inn
agined I was talking in what "Artemus''
calls Sarcastic way" and would not appre-,
ciate it.
Well, it is very possible that we may be
what our butternut friend is pleased to call
-'l3 @T' "sNAKE BIT p'9 l
Yesterday, while a forage train from our
brigade was securing the country after pro.
visions, the rebels suddenly appeared, where,
upon little fight occurred and the whole
party was carried off, with the exception of
Pat. OConnell of Go. B, who, after being TAX
en-, jumped over the fence and made good his
escape. The following is a list Of those tax.
en- from the Thirty Fifth
Sergeant John Phillips, Co. D, officer in
command of the Pioneer corps; John Hill,
pioneer, Go. @; John Frehner, pioneer, Co.
Q; VIM. Griffith, pioneer, Co. G.; William,
Seals, pioneer, Co. A; Mat. Ferrill, teamster,
Co. I VIM. G. White, Co. G, Brigade Quar-
termaster's clerk. e '' eHt
The Brigade Quartermaster, Lieut.. Dug
gan, of Co. K, was severely wounded in the
arm and side not so badly as he pretended,
however. The rebels thought he was dying,
and left him for dead, but when they were
gone he came to, and crawled back to camp
L neglected to state in its proper place, that
all the wagons were burnt except one, which
was saved by Pat o. 'Connel, who returned
with reinforcements and succeeded in recap
turing it.
THE OBJECT OF THE PRESENT EXPEDITION
Appears to be the demolition of Johnston's
army, and the utter destruction of the two
great leading lines of railroad, leading North
and South Of jackson. In other words, we
we wish to reap the benefit of our great VIC
tory on the river, by fixing up the State Of
in such manner as to make it a
little more inconvenient for the rebels to ira
vel. This, think, is the main object of the
expedition. What else remains behind the
cloud, however, of course it is not in the
province of a subaltern to imagine.
''ii2aaT g I'm CONCLUSION, i!t
will say that probably in my next letter
shall be able to announce the gratifying in
diligence that jackson is ours
The mail closes in a few minutes, and
must have done. f''i ***