On Christmas my wife's cousins, Lieutenant Nelson and
privates Ed and Ike Cook and Jim McKell1 dined with me; all of
Company D, Eighty-ninth Regiment. A. M. of that day the regiment fired by
battalion and file. P. M. I offered a turkey to the marksman who would hit his
head, and a bottle of wine and a tumbler to next best shot, and a bottle of
wine to third best. A bright, warm day and a jolly one — a merry Christmas
indeed.
[The] 26th and 27th, mild days and cloudy but only a few
drops of rain. Dr. Kellogg spent the 26th with us — surgeon on General
Scammon's staff. Talked free-thinking talk with him in a joking vein. A clever
gentleman. Major Carey stopped [the] 27th with us — of the Twelfth. Told a good
one; the Thirty-fourth got a good lot of lumber; put a sentinel over it. After
dark the Twelfth got up a relief — relieved the Thirty-four sentinel and
carried off the lumber!
_______________
1 Willie McKell. He died at Andersonville 1864. —
This written on margin by Mr. Hayes.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 380
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