"Would Dig Our Ditch About Four Feet Wide"

Sergeant W.R. Eddington of the 97th Illinois Infantry wrote a description of some of the entrenchments constructed by Union troops during the Siege of Vicksburg.

In making our breastworks we would dig our ditch about four feet wide and run them parallel with the Rebel line of works for miles in length. (Our line of battle was about 15 miles long.) We would put the dirt we got out of the ditch we dug up toward the rebel works. We would dig down about 3 feet then we would dig the top of the bank next to the rebels down about one foot and back far enough to make a comfortable seat, then we would take bags and fill them full of dirt (these we called sand bags). We would lay these bags along the top—end to end—of the loose dirt we had piled up out of the ditch we dug. As we laid up the first tier of bags we left about two inch space between each end of the bags. Now we would lay another tier of bags on top of this one and this would leave a small hole through which we would put our guns. We would lay more bags on top of these until we had them away over our heads so that we was entirely hid from the Rebels. Now we would get a small stick, sharpen one end of it and split the other end and put a small tin case looking glass in the split (most of the boys carried them) we would sit with our backs toward the Rebels and our guns stuck in the holes behind us, the muzzles pointed toward the Rebels, directly over the top of our heads, the guns cocked and our thumbs on the triggers. We would take the stick with the looking glass in it and stick it in the bank in front of us and whenever anything came across the gun in the glass we would pull the trigger.