The Parade of a part of a regiment of Federal Troops at
Baton Rouge.
It would take a long search to find a finer body of men than these trained and seasoned veterans here drawn up in line.
The campaign on the
lower Mississippi was a survival of the fittest in more ways than one.
Sickness was rife, and only those in the best condition and the hardiest kept in trim for active service.
In many cases regiments could muster only 120 men. Camp fevers and the threat of the yellow scourge were always present.
The returns of the regiments employed in the vicinity of New Orleans show a startling mortality.
The Thirteenth Connecticut lost by disease 160 men. The Twenty-first Indiana, whose casualty list in the
battle of Baton Rouge was 126, lost twice that number from sickness.
A larger proportion of sick to killed and wounded prevailed in the Fourteenth Maine and the Seventh Vermont--the former losing 332 and the latter 407.