Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: Monday, November 9, 1863

We hear today that Echols has had a fight at Lewisburg with 8000 of the enemy, and been badly whipped — lost all his artillery, and many of his men. Hear too that the Home Guard and cadets are ordered on from Clifton Forge to Covington, so that the provision that was started last night would not reach them. All is anxiety. So hurriedly did many go off, that they carried no blankets, and some went with cotton clothes only. Mr. P. went with a pair of worn-out summer boots, and without an article of clothing but what he had on; not even an extra pair of stockings. It is bitterly cold tonight; snowed a little today; the coldest day of the season as yet. I am tasting some of the cruel anxieties which war occasions.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 170

No comments: