May 29 - To market early. Saw 4 large boat loads of Gen. Grant's prisoners. 2 of our companies go as guard. Eve small prayer meeting success and pleasure in talking pastoraly with men.
May 30 - Fine day. Reinforcements morning for Gen. Grant. Distributed tracts in a.m. Warm walk to Episcopal church. P.m. good attendance of soldiers at service. Eve went to 39th but no invitation to preach. Read thoughts on missions.
May 31 - Grant has defeated various attachments of rebels in Mississippi taking Raymond and Jackson. Has devastated[?] Vicksburgh, his [?] touching the river above and below. Banks* is around Port Hudson in the same way. Sign regiments have been raised and are being raised, they fight pretty well.
* James W. Fifer of 67th OVI
* Union Major General Nathaniel Prentice Banks was born 30 Jan 1816 in Waltham, MA. He had only common school education and at an early age worked as a bobbin boy in a textile factory. He then apprenticed as a mechanic with Elias Howe. He studied law and was admitted to the bar at the age of 23.
Here he is as a young man
He was elected as a Democrat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, serving from 1849-1853, and was speaker of the house from 1851-52. In 1853 he was elected to the US Congress. He was re-elected as a Republican in 1856 and served as speaker of the house, but resigned from Congress in 1857. He served as Governor of Massachusetts from 1858-1860.
As the Civil War became imminent, President Abraham Lincoln considered Banks for a cabinet post, and eventually chose him as one of the first major generals of volunteers, appointing him on May 16, 1861. Perceptions that the Massachusetts militia was well organized and armed at the beginning of the Civil War likely played a role in the appointment decision, as Banks had also been considered for quartermaste general. He was initially resented by many of the generals who had graduated from the United States Military Academy, but Banks brought political benefits to the administration, including the ability to attract recruits and money for the Federal cause.
Banks first commanded at Annapolis, Maryland, suppressing support for the Confederacy in a slave-holding state that was at risk of seceding, then was sent to command on the upper Potomac when Brig. Gen. Robert Patterson failed to move aggressively in that area.
General Banks served in the Shendoah Valley, at Cedar Mountain, at the Battle of Mansfield, Port Hudson and the Red River Campaign.
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