Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, May 3, 1865

We started at 5 a. m. and marched twenty miles today. Crops look fine. There are a great many rebel soldiers throughout the country here, who have just returned from the armies of Johnston and Lee. Our army, for the first time, is passing through the country without destroying property.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 273