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

Thursday, 2d–A fine shower about noon cooled the air and laid the dust. The entire corps lay in camp all day, the men washing and mending their clothes, and the blacksmiths shoeing the horses and mules. We are in the valley between the Sandy and Lookout mountains, which are heavily timbered with pine and ash. The quartermaster’s trains were sent out on forage today, but although the farms in the valley are fairly good, there is little to be had, for the few farmers thought it useless to grow crops this summer.