Sunday, March 20, 2016

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, May 13, 1865

Started at 10 a. m. and marched twelve miles today. We went into bivouac for the night near Hanover Court House. It is quite swampy and the roads are very bad, on account of so much rain the last few days. The country through which we passed today is considerably cut up by fortifications and badly used up on account of the two armies passing back and forth so often over the same roads and fields. The citizens are back on their farms and are at work again. Details of our men are stationed all along the way, guarding their homes and property, to keep the army from destroying things. When the army gets past, the guards fall into line at the rear.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 274-5

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