 In October alone, 22 men died and 73 were discharged.November saw only a modest improvement, and as of December 6, the regiment, which had departed Michigan fifteen months prior with 996 men and officers, now reported a mere 191 men present for duty.The regiment quartered in a cotton press in New Orleans and recovered sufficiently by January 1863 to  join Godfrey Weitzel’s operation to capture or destroy the troublesome, partially ironclad Confederate gunboat "J.A.