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MR. EDITOR: —
Our "marching orders" have come at last, and our doom
may now be considered sealed. Orders were received last night
to have ten days' rations drawn, three of them cooked and in haversacks,
and be ready to leave at any time after six o'clock this morning;
but orders afterward came that we need not cook our rations until
to-day.
Now this looks something like leaving, but it is
nothing more than we have been looking for ever since we came
here. To-morrow will make one month since we landed at this place,
and it may be some days yet before we take our departure; still,
we are under marching orders. Our destination, no doubt, is Vicksburg,
or some point on the Mississippi river; so that we can take part
in the great movement that will shortly occur against that formidable
place. I do not believe there are any of us overly-anxious to
make a cruise down there at present; but if it is necessary, (and
no doubt it is) you will find the Seventy-Eighth ready and willing
to do their part. If it should be our lot to get into an engagement,
your readers may expect to hear of them winning honors, and of
the "rebs" getting "fits."
The news from below indicates that everything is
in motion, and that the great decisive move will take place before
long, which will eventually put Vicksburg in our possession.
Victory is bound to be ours. It is thought by some (our expedition
being so formidable) that an evacuation will take place before
everything which is intended can be brought to bear upon that
devoted place. So mote it be.
The best thing that has yet occurred was the passing
of the rebel batteries by the ram Queen of the West and the Indianola,
of which no doubt your readers are apprised before this. It will
be the means of cutting off the river communication between Vicksburg
and Port Hudson, and will, in a great measure, affect their supplies.
In the undertaking I | |