Camp Union, Fayetteville, Virginia.— This is the
birthday of sister Fanny. Dear, dear sister, so lovely, such a character! She
would have been forty-two years old today. Now six years — six years next June
— since she left us.
Rained during the night. Warm, and probably more rain today.
This is the January thaw. The mud is beaten down by the rain. The thunder
roaring now. Very few thunder-storms; not more than three or four since we came
to western Virginia.
A pleasant lull in the storm gave me a chance for a parade
last evening, or rather the adjutant asked if we should have one. I, supposing
him to be joking, said, “Yes, the weather is so favorable.” He ordered it and I
was caught. I got a captured Caskie Cavalry sabre, slung it across my shoulder,
and went through with [it]. We returned in column by companies closed in mass.
The men marched well in the mud and it went off with spirit.
Spent the evening reading the [Cincinnati] Gazette of
the 16th, eating peaches with Avery and Gardner, and listening to their
tales of life on the plains and in Mexico. Avery's story of the Navajos running
off goats and sheep and his killing an Indian will do to tell Birch.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 191-2
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