October 26, 1861
I came to Fort Snelling October 11th and left the 14th for Washington and then on to La Crosse.
We were in Chicago the 16th and left there the 17th for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
At Pittsburgh we received orders to go to Louisville, Kentucky, by boat and we landed there the 22nd.
The evening we arrived at Louisville we were ordered to march fifteen miles with full equipment.
We stopped at the edge of Louisville where we were fed by the towns people, we received from them bread, pork, coffee, apples, tobacco and cigars, then we marched a half a mile, and then we marched by the town and to the depot where we and our equipment were loaded on a freight train.
Now we are thirty-five miles from Louisville in our tents on the same grounds that the Illinois 19th regiment left yesterday.
The Minnesota 2nd regiment is here alone. The Rebels’ camp is ten miles from here.
About forty thousand of our enemy is near by.
It looked very unsafe when we moved in here, but several thousand Northern men have daily passed by here to the front.
No battle seems to be close at hand, but instead, I think we will be moving through the land after the Rebels.
The nights are cold, the days are warm, I am well, and so is Peder, Evend and the others that we know.
No accident has happened to any in our regiment on this trip, I have no news to write as no one receives any newspapers.
It is difficult to write as I am sitting on the ground by my tent, my knap-sack serves as a table.
As usual we live on crackers, pork, coffee and bean soup.
We have drill four times a day and fall in line five times a day. To live under strict rules is hard for one not used to it, we always have many soldiers under arrest for breaking the rules.
We have fifty women in our camp, the officers have their wives here, they have to crawl into tents, sleep as we do, and often have to be satisfied with a cracker in one hand, a handful of pork in the other to sustain life.
At present we get apples, pie and cider delivered in our camp which can be bought.