​

​August 5, 1864 

Journal # 4
There is never a minute of downtime in the Navy. Everyone wants to fight on land but there is never enough people for the Navy. Many of the men who have signed up for the Navy don’t have any experience so we have to explain everything to them. The good thing about being in the Navy is we get paid very high wages $20 a month. The amount of money that I have made in the three years I have been in the Navy is more than I have made my entire life before. There are even some blacks on my ship that work as servants. I hear that the North has been using them as actual crew members and I don’t understand how they are able to get those monkeys to do anything they are shooting themselves in the foot.
I like being an Officer and having the authority and whipping the men into shape. The drills we make them do really help them to develop muscles and work under pressure like when we make them load cannons while someone is firing the gun into the air. It is very annoying to have to constantly clean the boat due to the black dust that gets everywhere from the burning coal. For many of the men who were merchants it’s hard for them not to sing while doing the chores and have to be constantly reminded. On this boat we have boys as young as 13 to 45. We have men who have never left their homes.We have had to punish some of the men by chaining them up and only giving them bread and water it usually gets them to never do that again.



-- John Baker