News came
that Abe Lincoln1 had been assassinated at Washington, in a theater,
also Secretary Seward and his son.2 When the news came of the death of
the president, the safety guards, placed at private houses to protect the
families from violence, were relieved. General Sherman at once demanded an
answer from Johnston by tomorrow, in regard to the surrender. Charles Correll
of our company was put under arrest for saying that the president should have
been shot three years ago. Correll has only been with the company since the
28th of last September, and then had been hired to enlist for a big sum of
money. I went out on picket this morning.
_______________
1 That a soldier should speak of Lincoln in such
familiar terms was but natural. It was in no sense disrespectful. All through
the war the President was spoken of as "Abe" Lincoln. — Ed.
2 This shows again the unreliable character of
the first reports. — Ed.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B.,
Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 268
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