To our great surprise, Charlie came in this morning from the
other side. He was in the battle, and General Carter, and dozens of others that
we did not think of. See the mountain reduced to a mole-hill! He says, though
the fight was desperate, we lost only eighty-five killed, and less than a
hundred and fifty wounded! And we had only twenty-five hundred against the
Yankees' four thousand five hundred. There is no truth in our having held the
Garrison even for a moment, though we drove them down to the river in a panic.
The majority ran like fine fellows, but a Maine regiment fought like devils. He
says Will and Thompson Bird set fire to the Yankee camp with the greatest
alacrity, as though it were rare fun. General Williams was killed as he passed
Piper's, by a shot from a window, supposed to have been fired by a citizen.
Some one from town told him that the Federals were breaking in the houses,
destroying the furniture, and tearing the clothes of the women and children in
shreds, like maniacs. O my home! I wonder if they have entered ours? What a
jolly time they would have over all the letters I left in my desk! Butler has
ordered them to burn Baton Rouge if forced to evacuate it. Looks as though he
was not so sure of holding it.
Miss Turner told Miriam that her mother attempted to enter
town after the fight to save some things, when the gallant Colonel Dudley put a
pistol to her head, called her an old she-devil, and told her he would blow her
d----- brains out if she moved a step; that anyhow, none but we d----- women
had put the men up to fighting, and we were the ones who were to blame for the
fuss. There is no name he did not call us.
SOURCE: Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's
Diary, p. 159-60
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