until they became red-hot, then taking them into his tent, where according to him: "...they make it comfortable." During this time of relative quiet, Rice reports one muster where the battery commander asked all of the "weak-kneed ones" to step forward, as "we would be in a fight in only three hours." Four men answered this call—but another trooper who had been ordered to stay behind begged to change places with one of those being sent into battle, even offering "his last dollar" as an incentive, before being refused by every man in the battery. Apparently the battle did not materialize, as Rice makes no further mention of it. On February 19 and 20, the members of Battery E were witnesses to the burning of Hopefield, Arkansas, a small town across the river whose citizens had taken the Unionist Loyalty oath, but were secretly assisting local Confederate guerrillas. After several Federal soldiers had been murdered in or near the town, four companies of Northern troops attacked Hopefield and burnt the entire city to the ground. Though Battery E did not actively participate in this event, Rice described it as a "long-merited punishment." Returning to Memphis on March 14 of that same year, they took steamboats to Duckport, Louisiana, a (now vanished) landing on the Mississippi River a few miles northwest of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Here, they rejoined the rest of Sherman's XV Corps, one of five corps assigned to Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee that was then preparing to embark on the famed Vicksburg Campaign. Sometime during the winter, according to Private Rice, Battery E was reduced from a six-gun battery to a four-gun battery, numbering 128 effectives. During its time at Vicksburg (see below) the battery was brought back up to its usual six-gun size once again. Vicksburg campaign Battle of Jackson On May 2 the battery went to Grand Gulf, Mississippi; from thence they advanced toward Jackson, Mississippi, the capital of the state. The heat during this time was reportedly so intense that even "strong men" fell out of the march and "were left with some comrade to die or come on, as the case might be." Dead horses and mules lay everywhere along the line of march, and Rice reports that Battery E lost six of its own horses to "sunstroke, and drinking poisoned water." Reaching Jackson on May 10, Battery E and the rest of