Our sojourn at Baton Rouge was a period of waiting expectancy. We were learning that to wait is one of the chief duties of a soldier as it is indeed one of the the most irksome.
On February 5 the regiment received a few old "Sibley" tents, a lot which had been left behind by some departing regiment. They were musty old things, but some of the boys went into them until our new ones, which we are entitled to, should arrive. Today the 48th was brigaded with the 116th New York, the 21st Maine and the 49th Massachusetts, constituting the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 19th Army Corps, with Maj.-Gen. C. C. Augur—a regular army officer—in command of the Division; Col. E. P. Chapin of the 116th New York (Senior Colonel) in command of the Brigade, and Maj.-Gen. N. P. Banks in command of the Department, which was designated as the "Department of the Gulf," and on February 6 muskets and ammunition were dealt out and we then for the first time considered ourselves full-fledged soldiers of "Uncle Sam."
On March 11 there was a grand review of the troops then at Baton Rouge. The sight of 20,000 well-drilled troops, infantry, cavalry, and artillery is no ordinary spectacle. Banks on his coal-black stallion with his Division and Brigade Commanders made a distinguished appearance, but the writer recalls that his interest centered chiefly in Farragut who with the Captains of the fleet had been invited to witness the parade.
At length on March 12 at 9 P. M. an order came to have twenty-four hours cooked rations and forty rounds of ammunition and be ready to march
