All was quietness with us yesterday; today we are all in
excitement and alarm. A courier has come in with news that the enemy is this
side of Covington (40 miles off), and is advancing, and no force that we know
of between us and them. General J. is somewhere out there. Again we hear that
the Yankees are 17 miles from Staunton; so that we are between two fires.
People are busy packing up silver and valuables; negroes are coming in from
west of us; and all is distraction. The few men here are going out to-night to
join J. if they can find him. They are more likely to be taken prisoners, it
seems to me. Mr. P. is not well; has had fever every day since his return home;
yet he goes out to-night, and will be in the saddle all night. He is making
arrangements to have our bacon and flour hidden away, and his stock driven over
the mountain. My heart sinks within me. Are we to experience what so many
others have suffered? God deliver us! Let our help be in Thee!
SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and
Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 182
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