Good news at last. Four letters were received last night by
way of Ashland. We learn that we certainly whipped the Yankees on the 31st of
May and 1st of June, and that Jackson has had a most glorious campaign in the
Valley. We are grieved to hear that the gallant Ashby has been killed, and
trust that it is a mere rumour, and that God has spared his valuable life. My
sons were not in the late fight, but are stationed at Strawberry Hill, the home
of my childhood. Every thing is being stolen on these two places and elsewhere.
A lieutenant on General Porter's staff rode up this evening to ask M. to sell
him butter, fowls, eggs, etc. She told him that her poultry-yard had been
robbed the night before by some of his men. He professed great horror, but had
not gone fifty yards when we heard the report of a pistol, and this wonderfully
proper lieutenant of a moment before had shot the hog of an old negro woman who
lives here.
SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern
Refugee, During the War, p. 142
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