Price's Farm, four miles south of Raleigh, Virginia. —
Left camp at Beckley's at 10:30 A. M. with Twenty-third, a section of
McMullen's Battery under Lieutenant Crome, twenty horse under Captain Gilmore
and his first lieutenant, Abraham. Reached here at 1.30 P. M. A short march but
crossed two streams somewhat difficult. Broke one whiffletree. All right, with
this exception. Camp on fine ground, sandy, rolling and near to Beaver Creek.
Floyd camped here on his retreat from Cotton Hill. The men carried their
knapsacks; shall try to accustom them to it by easy marches at first. They are
in fine spirits; looked well.
A hostile feeling exists toward the Twenty-third by the
Thirtieth. Had a talk with Colonel Jones, Major Hildt, and Colonel Ewing. All
agree that Major Comly and myself have treated them well, but the company
officers of the Twenty-third have not behaved fraternally towards them. The
immediate trouble now is some defilement of the quarters we left for the
Thirtieth in Raleigh. This must be looked into and punished if possible.
This is one of the finest camping spots I have seen. Soil
sandy, surface undulating, in the forks of two beautiful mountain streams;
space enough for a brigade and very defensible. It began to rain within half an
hour after our tents were pitched and was “falling weather” (west Virginia
phrase for rainy weather) the rest of the day. This is the sixth day of falling
weather, with only a few streaks of sunshine between.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 235
No comments:
Post a Comment