21st.—The ladies are now engaged making sand-bags for the fortifications at Yorktown; every lecture-room in town crowded with them, sewing busily, hopefully, prayerfully. Thousands are wanted. No battle, but heavy skirmishing at Yorktown. Our friend, Colonel McKinney, has fallen at the head of a North Carolina regiment. Fredericksburg has been abandoned to the enemy. Troops [...]
APRIL 21st.— A calm before the storm.
Monday, 21st–Our camp is becoming more unhealthy all the time, and the odor from the battlefield at times is very disagreeable. This is the result of the heavy rains followed by warm weather. Troops are arriving here every day and going on to the front. The army is advancing on Corinth, Mississippi, and we hear [...]
April 21st. At 1 o’clock this morning our gunboats returned, having succeeded in cutting the chain and setting two schooners adrift. At 3 o’clock all hands were aroused to ward off a large fire raft which among many others the enemy had sent adrift for our destruction, but like its predecessors it passed by harmless.
21st. A rainy day. Felt most sick, feverish, took a blue pill. Did not do much during the day.
April 21st.–Have been ill. One day I dined at Mrs. Preston’s, pâté de foie gras and partridge prepared for me as I like them. I had been awfully depressed for days and could not sleep at night for anxiety, but I did not know that I was bodily ill. Mrs. Preston came home with me. [...]
21st–Occasional firing between the batteries on Warwick Creek to-day, without results worth noting. Sickness among the troops rapidly increasing. Remittent fever, diarrhÅ“a, and dysentery prevail. We are encamped in low, wet ground, and the heavy rains keep much of it overflowed. I fear that if we remain here long we shall lose many men by [...]