SUNDAY 18
This has been a wet disagreable day. Did not go to church, have been reading & writing most of the day. E’d Dickerson and Owen Klink called today. They are just from the other side of the River. All quiet there. There seems to be an ominous stillness all round the City soon to be broken by a desperate battle near by. At least 200000 men are within a few miles of the City, rebels & all, probably more. Called at Doct Everitts this evening. Beauregard is quite a “bug bear” to many of the inhabitants just now.
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The three diary manuscript volumes, Washington during the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865, are available online at The Library of Congress.