The “military situation” seems very much the same. Some
cheering intimations from Georgia. Hood has made movements on Sherman's flank,
and Forrest upon his rear, which it is thought promise most valuable results,
but nothing final has been yet accomplished, and we may be too sanguine.
General Price is still successful in Missouri. In the Valley
of Virginia an immense amount of private property has been destroyed. Sheridan,
glorying in his shame, boasts of, and probably magnifies, what has been done in
that way. He telegraphs to Grant that he has burned 2,000 barns. The Lord
shorten his dreadful work, and have mercy upon the sufferers!
Nothing new about Richmond. A few days ago the enemy made
several attempts to advance upon the Darbytown road, and were handsomely
repulsed. The firing of cannon is so common a sound that it is rather
remarkable when we do not hear it.
Mr. ––– has been telling us of some other interesting cases
in his hospital; among them, that of Captain Brown, of North Carolina, has
awakened our sympathies. He came into the hospital bright and cheerful, with
every appearance of speedy recovery. He talked a great deal of his wife and six
children at home, one of whom he had never seen. Knowing that his wife would be
sick, he had obtained a furlough, and made arrangements to go home, but the
recent battles coming on, he would not leave his post. Through many a
hard-fought action God had kept him unharmed; he had never been touched by a
solitary weapon, until he began to feel that there was not the slightest danger
to him, amid the harvest of death. He wrote that he should be at home as soon
as this fight was over; but it was not to be so, and he soon came into the
hospital severely wounded. As he lay upon his bed of suffering, the image of
his dear wife in her sickness and sorrow, and then with her new-born infant,
seemed constantly before him. “I intended to be there,” he would say dreamily; “I
made all my arrangements to be there ; I know she wants me; she wrote to me to
come to her; oh, I wish I was there, but now I can't go, but I hope I did
right; I hope it is all right.” A letter from her, speaking of herself and
infant as doing well relieved his anxiety, and he tried to bear the
disappointment with patience, still hoping soon to be at home. God, however,
had ordered it otherwise. The word had gone forth, “He shall not return to his
house, neither shall his place know him any more.” Gangrene appeared, and it
was melancholy to see his strength giving way, his hopes fading, and death
coming steadily on. He was a professor of religion, and Mr. ––– says he was always ready to hear the
word of God, and, though anxious to live, yet he put himself into the Lord's
hand, with humble faith and hope, such as may give his friends assurance that
death was gain to him.
The war news seems encouraging. Many persons are very
despondent, but I do not feel so — perhaps I do not understand the military
signs. Our men below Richmond have certainly had many successes of late.
Sheridan, instead of capturing Lynchburg, as he promised, is retreating down
the Valley. In the South, the army of Tennessee is in Sherman's rear, and
Forrest still carries every thing before him. General Price seems to be doing
well in Missouri; Arkansas and Texas seem to be all right. Kentucky, too, (poor
Kentucky !) seems more hopeful. Then why should we despond? Maryland, alas for
Maryland! the tyrant's heel appears too heavy for her, and we grievously fear
that the prospect of her union with the South is rapidly passing away. If we
must give her up, it will not be without sorrow and mortification. We shall
mournfully bewail her dishonour and shame. If her noble sons who have come to
the South must return, they will take with them our gratitude and admiration
for their gallant bearing in many a hard-fought battle. Readily will we receive
those who choose to remain among us; and in holy ground take care of her
honoured dead, who so freely gave their lives for Southern rights. The Potomac
may seem to some the natural boundary between North and South; but it is hard
to make up one's mind yet to the entire surrender of our sister State; and if
we could, gladly would we hope for Maryland, even as we hope for the Southern
Confederacy herself.
SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern
Refugee, During the War, p. 314-6
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