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

Monday, 14th–A pleasant day and all is quiet. This is washday in camp. But since there are so many negro women here, thankful for the job, and who do it so cheaply, most of the boys hire their clothes washed. I got my week’s washing done for twenty-five cents. In the early morning we see dozens of negro women going to the springs, each with a tub of soiled clothes on her head and a pail in each hand, singing “the day ob jubilee hab come.” In the evening they return with the clean clothes in the same fashion, many of them singing some quaint negro melody.