Friday, January 8, 2016

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, February 15, 1865

It rained all night, and this morning is quite cool. By 8 o'clock we were again on the move and covered ten miles in pushing the rebels back. The Fifteenth Corps on our right drove them back this afternoon behind their fortifications on the south bank of the Congaree river, then we had a regular artillery duel until after dark. We have been in the smoke of the burning pine woods and buildings almost continuously for the last few days. At times when marching on a road alongside the burning pine timber, we became so blackened from the smoke as to look like negroes, while the heat from the burning pitch was frightful.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 253

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