Tuesday, July 1st. I heard such a good joke last night! If I had belonged to the female declaiming club, I fear me I would have resigned instantly through mere terror. (Thank Heaven, I don’t!) These officers say the women talk too much, which is undeniable. They then said, they meant to get up a [...]

Tuesday, 1st–Received orders to cook four days’ rations and be ready to move at a moment’s notice. We had everything in readiness when late in the evening the order was countermanded.

1st. Reveille at three A. M. Started at 4 A. M. Moved 8 miles to where the command from the other way was, at Round Grove, where Coffee had camped. Indians in their natural state encamped there too. Laughable sight. Pleasant day. Cooler and grass good. Saw the Oberlin boys. Letter from Fannie. Rested. Wrote [...]

July 1st, 1862.—Mother would like to omit the 4th of July festivities, but Father says the black folks must not be defrauded of their rights, so the preparations for the barbecue go on as usual. I cannot see that the war has made them a bit different unless it has made them more particular to [...]

July 1st.–No more news. It has settled down into this. The general battle, the decisive battle, has to be fought yet. Edward Cheves, only son of John Cheves, killed. His sister kept crying, “Oh, mother, what shall we do; Edward is killed,” but the mother sat dead still, white as a sheet, never uttering a [...]

July 1st.–The march of last night was full of terrible anxiety and danger. We marched through an enemy’s country, pressed by them on all sides, and momentarily expected when passing through some dense pine forest, to be attacked from ambush and cut to pieces, without the chance of a chivalrous fight. This would be murder [...]