March 31st.–Raining; rained all night. My health improving, but prudence requires me to still keep within the house. The reports of terrific fighting near Peterburg on Wednesday evening have not been confirmed. Although Gen. Lee’s dispatch shows they were not quite without foundation, I have no doubt there was a false alarm on both sides, [...]
Friday, 31st–Cloudy and windy today. We are ordered to have company drill four hours a day and dress parade at 5 o’clock in the evening. This is all the duty we have to perform; do not even have camp guard or provost duty. We have no picket duty to do, as the Twentieth Corps is [...]
31st. Cleared up soon after sunrise, but did not remain so long. Very heavy firing. Musketry and artillery to the right of and beyond Dinwiddie C. H. Very uneasy to know how the day is going. God grant us victory. Success now, the capture of the Southside and the Danville R. R. must bring peace [...]
March 31st.–Mr. Prioleau Hamilton told us of a great adventure. Mrs. Preston was put under his care on the train. He soon found the only other women along were “strictly unfortunate females,” as Carlyle calls them, beautiful and aggressive. He had to communicate the unpleasant fact to Mrs. Preston, on account of their propinquity, and [...]
31st.—A long pause in my diary. Every thing seems so dark and uncertain that I have no heart for keeping records. The croakers croak about Richmond being evacuated, but I can’t and won’t believe it. There is hard fighting about Petersburg, and General A. P. Hill has been killed. Dreadful to think of losing such [...]