No rain, but cloudy and quite cool. Skirmishing began again
early this morning and our artillery threw shells into the rebels' works, but
they would not reply. They are still fortifying their position. A rebel company
consisting of thirty-five men came over to our lines today and gave themselves
up. They informed us that there was a whole brigade that would surrender if
given a chance, for they were tired of retreating all the while. They also represented to
our officers that Johnston's entire force numbered only sixty thousand men, and
said that their artillerymen had orders not to fire when our artillery shelled,
but to wait until our troops should make a charge, and then open up on us.
There was one man of the Sixteenth Iowa killed today by a rebel sharpshooter.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B.,
Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 196-7
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