Sunday, March 6, 2016

A Woman's Diary Of The Siege Of Vicksburg: June 7, 1863

The churches are a great resort for those who have no caves. People fancy they are not shelled so much, and they are substantial and the pews good to sleep in. We had to leave this house last night, they were shelling our quarter so heavily. The night before, Martha forsook the cellar for a church. We went to H—’s office, which was comparatively quiet last night. H— carried,the bank box; I the case of matches; Martha the blankets and pillows, keeping an eye on the shells. We slept on piles of old newspapers. In the streets the roar seems so much more confusing, I feel sure I shall run right in the way of a shell. They seem to have five diferent sounds from the second of throwing than to the hollow echo wandering among the bills, and that sounds the most blood-curdling of all

SOURCE: George W. Cable, “A Woman's Diary Of The Siege Of Vicksburg”, The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 5, September 1885, p. 772

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