William H. Hill, a lawyer and the regiment’s quartermaster clerk, wrote in his diary on July 11, 1861: “Thursday. Our regiment left Union City in the cars of the Missouri and Ohio R.R. at dusk.”

Col. Barksdale, alarmed by the contaminated water in the Union City camp, and the resulting sickness and death, had gone back to Corinth for permission to move the regiment to Jackson, TN, about 60 miles north of Corinth.

Hill’s diary: “Friday. Arrived Jackson, Tennessee at 9 a.m. The Regiment unloaded the trains and took the baggage to the fair grounds expecting to go into permanent camp. But just as we got our baggage moved, we received an order to move immediately to Richmond, Va.”

They left for Corinth’s rail hub the next day, arriving in the evening and built fires and cooked provisions for eight days. Hill said they left Corinth on Sunday afternoon “in the cars of the Memphis and Charleston R.R. One man belonging to Company B was killed this evening at Iuka [MS] by attempting to get on the cars while [they were] in motion.”

(Hill’s diary is available at the Mississippi state archives in Jackson.)