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The diary of James Bannon

January 1, 1864
I inspected my Cavalry Division again this morning, forces appear to be well fed and groomed, and the rifles were cleaned and ready for battle. We don't have as many men with us as we did when we started South but the men that are here; are the fighting kind. I know it's New year's Day and if I were at home in Pennsylvania we'd be eating sauerkraut and sausage. Today they served us some local food call Gumbo and Jambalaya. It was good, they use a vegetable down here I wasn't familiar with called Okra. I spoke to a local farmer about and he said it probably wouldn't grow in PA due to the colder temps but he gave me some seeds anyway. Well I'm about to begin my patrol so I will write again later.

James closed his diary and laid it on his desk. As a Lieutenant in the Cavalry he was responsible for a small group of men 25-30, that made up a small part of the larger division. Knowing it was New Years Day and that the men would be anxious to blow off some steam he let them go free after an inspection that morning. It was late in the afternoon, but it was still warm outside, one of the nice things about being this far south. James checked the loads in his Colt 45 revolver before mounting his horse. Patting the horse on the shoulder he said calmly, "Alright Buck, let's go make sure the boys stay out of trouble tonight." 

Since coming to New Orleans there had been several bar fights in the French Quarter, James setup a rotation so that one of his men would be in the area to try to De-fuse any fights before they began. Other officers did not do the same thing and they made fun of James for it; but James has saved his men from many a fight and they had come to respect him for it. He rode Buck down the narrow streets of New Orleans. The music was cascading from several different bars along with drunken laughter creating a loud cacophony of noise. He rode down the streets in a random route each time not wanting to create an easily distinguishable pattern. After riding for an hour or so, he dismounted Buck and tied him to a hitching post outside a small tavern, he walked in and ordered a sarsaparilla. 

The mood inside the bar was celebratory and he didn't see any of his men inside this one, so he paid for his drink and began walking down the street glancing into shop windows and tavern doors.