This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

skirmishing, but essentially the 20th Mississippi led a garrison life near Canton during November and December, 1863.
Early in December, Pvt. Baxter had his first furlough since he volunteered in the Adams Rifles - his first opportunity to get back home to Mississippi City and to see his father, his five sisters, and his younger brother. The family was without a mother; she had died when Marion Francis Baxter was six years old.
Baxter?s furlough was granted for 26 days, spanning the period from December 6, 1863, to January 2, 1864, and it was up to him to get home the best way he could. He had, of course, been issued travel orders and transportation vouchers, but the state of railroads in southern Mississippi that December did not guarantee the quickest overland journey. It is likely that Pvt. Baxter used his own two feet in covering most of the distance between Canton and Mississippi City.
In December of 1863, Mississippi City, though certainly suffering from the Federal blockage was not immediately threatened from land or sea, and Pvt. Baxter?s furloughed visit home was a joyous one for him and for his family. His sisters on Christmas Day put together as much of a feast as was possible within the strictures of a war economy, and the warmth of a partially reunited family brought happiness to all of them. And when Pvt. Baxter rejoined his regiment at Canton, he likely carried a pair of newly cobbled shoes, a blanket or two from home, and some extra provisions he could share with Company E.
58