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PRISON ACCOUNT george erwin comstock, company c A Prison Diary This account is reprinted from the Upper Iowa Collegian 28 (7): 9–14, April 1, 1911; 28 (8): 10–13, May 6, 1911; and 28 (9): 4–7, June 8, 1911. The editors of the Collegian obviously made alterations to the original material; however, the changes appear to have been made with Comstock’s knowledge and consent. Therefore, their editorial commentary has been retained here. Collegian Editorial Note — This sketch was compiled from the diary of Mr. G. E. Comstock of the ‘‘University Recruits,’’ Twelfth Iowa Regiment, carefully edited, transcribed and read to him shortly before his death and approved by him. It is hereby presented as his share in the program of the semi-centennial celebration of our University Recruits. chapter i Vicksburg surrendered, July 4, 1863, a great victory for the Federal Union. But resting not a moment upon laurels earned, Grant turned his conquering army eastward, toward the capital of Mississippi, which, though captured once, was now again in full possession of the enemy. So now it was for the second time, ‘‘On to Jackson.’’ July 10, 1863 the Federal army had approached within cannon shot of Jackson, and as fast as possible was forming its lines around the city, getting batteries in position and arranging for its siege and capture. Our haversacks had been quite gaunt for some time and were still on the decline. Hard marching and empty haversacks never did and never will agree. Accordingly on the evening of the 10th, a detail was made to go after supplies, the detail being as follows: I. B. S. Isted [sic], Co. B, Frank Coolidge, Co. F, N. Hart Spears [sic], and G. E. Comstock of Co. C, we being under the direction of our regimental Quarter Master, Geo. H. Morisey [sic]. { 195 } Accordingly, at 3 a.m. July 11, I saddled and mounted my horse which I had ‘‘foraged’’ the day before. The other boys rode in the army wagons which we took along. The Quarter Master and myself rode on ahead, scouting fashion. A little after sunrise we reached our objective point, where we knew the forage to be, but lo, and behold! Upon turning in off from the main road, we came up against our Brigade Quarter Master and train, who of course to our disappointment had gotten there a few minutes ahead of us. However, we fell to with a will and began loading up our train. There were three loads of bacon and hams, five loads of corn, and three other loads of things; almost everything good to eat that you can think of, eleven army loads in all. Right here, as well as anywhere I may as well say that our Brigade Quarter Master was hardly up to snuff in such matters and allowed himself to lose a lot of precious time in getting away from the plantation. At last however, we were off and getting to the main road we turned our train in the direction of camp. We were but fairly started on the main road when we saw some blue coats in the road, coming our way. We supposed of course, that they were foragers like ourselves, out for subsistence. However , we were soon undeceived, for presently a squad of rebel cavalry, or guerillas, maybe they were, charged down upon us. When they reached the head of the train they opened column and kept on coming down until perhaps half way along our train when we halted them with as lively a gun play as we knew how to put up, and thus for a few moments we held them in check. But seeing our inferiority in number, and we were foragers rather than in fighting trim they soon came on down the road and completely surrounded us. There was, however, some more red hot gun practices right then and there, and the targets were both blue and gray. Our men behind wagons and trees, as best they could, defended themselves . Among the rebs, was a tall commanding fellow, with long black hair, and as I afterwards saw, black eyes. He was evidently the captain of the squad. He kept shooting his gun very carelessly toward our regimental Quarter Master, Morisey, who was some distance off to my left, but for some reason could not hit him. Now Morisey was every inch a man, a hero too, and a personal friend, and I didn’t want to...

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