Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, December 21, 1862

We left Abbeville this morning and marched through to Holly Springs, twenty-two miles. It was warm and dusty traveling. We arrived at dark, going into bivouac in the north edge of town, and I tell you the boys made the boards fly, for as the teams had not yet arrived with our tents, we pulled down vacant houses to build bunks and windbreaks to protect us from the cold wind.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 88