Thursday, 3d–The Eleventh Iowa went out on picket duty. I was on guard at division headquarters, my post being in a large orchard, and my orders were to keep all soldiers out of it.[1] [1] Such orders soon got to be a joke with the men, they in a quiet way giving the commanding officers [...]
3rd. Thursday. In saddles at three A. M. Rode 18 miles. Encamped on Grand River.
Thursday, July 3d.—Went out into the Lowry neighborhood to visit kin. (Note: picture is of an unidentified Confederate soldier.)
July 3rd, 1862.—We went yesterday to see the soldiers in camp. Brother Junius is as brown as a berry. I did not know blondes ever burned brown. I thought they only turned red. His uniform is extremely becoming. He did not get it until after he reached Palatka, so we had not seen him in [...]
July 3d.–Mem says she feels like sitting down, as an Irishwoman does at a wake, and howling night and day. Why did Huger let MeClellan slip through his fingers? Arrived at Mrs. McMahan’s at the wrong moment. Mrs. Bartow was reading to the stricken mother an account of the death of her son. The letter [...]
3rd.–This morning the men looked haggard and worn. Some slept; more shivered with cold the night through, and in my morning round to look after the health of the regiment, I found men standing upright, without any support, and fast asleep. There was no wood within half a mile of us to make fires. Not [...]
Jane Eliza Newton Woolsey to her daughter. July 3, ’62. My dear Eliza: What times you are living through! in the very midst, too, of everything as you are !–and how dark, very dark, it all looks to us this morning as we read the last “reliable ” accounts from the army before Richmond! Think [...]
JULY 2d.—More fighting to-day. The enemy, although their batteries were successfully defended last night at Malvern Hill, abandoned many guns after the charges ceased, and retreated hastily. The grand army of invasion is now some twenty-five miles from the city, and yet the Northern papers claim the victory. They say it was a masterly strategic [...]
Wednesday, 2d–I went out about a half mile from camp to pick blackberries, and I picked a gallon of them and sold them to the hospital steward for $1.25.
2nd. Wednesday. In our saddles at 5 A. M. Marched 8 miles west, near where the Major and we boys captured the wagon. Nothing special occurred.
2d.–What relief it was, last night, at half-past 9, after the six day’s of excitement, fatigue, fighting and famine, to lie down once more, secure of a good long night’s rest! What a surprise, the whispered call, in just three hours, to rise quietly and resume the march! And what was our astonishment, when daylight [...]
One of the hospital duties of all the nurses at the front was writing letters home for the sick and wounded men, and sometimes the sad work of telling the story of their last few hours of life. That such letters helped to comfort sorrowful hearts, the following answer to one shows. The soldier was [...]
JULY 1st.—To-day Gen. Magruder led his division into action at Malvern Hill, it is said, contrary to the judgment of other commanders. The enemy’s batteries commanded all the approaches in most advantageous position, and fearful was the slaughter. A wounded soldier, fresh from the field to-night, informs me that our loss in killed in this [...]
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 [...]