March 5th, 1865.—It seems we are not to be captured by McCook after all. Over the signal stations between the Light House and Tallahassee a message came this morning. Gunboats are around the light house and colored troops are landing and are now on the way to Tallahassee via Newport. Such excitement I never saw; Captain Brokaw called in the Home Guards and they came, from the farm, the stores, from all places, where old men were employed, they came hurrying in. Soldiers at home on furlough, (there are very few of these) came forward to take their places in the ranks of Tallahassee’s defenders. The cadets from the seminary, west of the Suwanee, offered their services and there was even some talk of a company of women, to organize and help to hold the enemy at bay. It is four o’clock now and these hastily marshalled troops are gone. Tallahassee waits, waits for news of the morrow.
Susan Bradford is nearly 18 years old when this entry was made.