Cincinnati. — A. M., 8:30, bright, cold, gusty,
started in cars on Marietta Railroad; reached Hamden, junction of railroad to
Portsmouth, about 2 P. M.; twenty-five miles to Oak Hill on this railroad;
Cuthbert, in quartermaster department under Captain Fitch at Gauley Bridge, my
only acquaintance. Took an old hack — no curtains, rotten harness, deep muddy
roads — for Marietta [Gallipolis]. The driver was a good-natured, persevering
youngster of seventeen, who trudged afoot through the worst holes and landed us
safely at Gallipolis [at] three-thirty A. M., after a cold, sleepless,
uncomfortable ride. He said he had joined three regiments; turned out of two as
too young and taken out of the third by his father. Poor boy! His life is one
of much greater hardship than anything a soldier suffers.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 200
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