Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Alexander G. Downing.

Wednesday, 4th–It is still quite warm. I was on fatigue at the fortifications. The men are pulling down some fine residences and using the material in building the forts. It is pretty harsh and severe business to order a family, brave enough to stay all through the siege, out of their home and tear down their house before their eyes, to build into fortifications, but this is war. We are fortifying the place so that ten thousand men can hold it against any force that has a mind to come.