[The Diary for the
last few months of 1864 is for the most part hardly more than a line a day,
entered in a pocket memorandum book, "The Southern Almanac for 1864,"
which Hayes's orderly, William Crump, had got hold of at Middlebrook, Virginia,
early in June. Many of the entries were originally made with a pencil and
subsequently inked over. Usually the entries give only a bald statement of the
movement of the day. In some cases entries are omitted here entirely; in other
cases several are combined in a single paragraph.]
Sunday afternoon,
July 17, [the] Fifth [Virginia] and Twenty-third [Ohio] [marched from
Martinsburg] to near Charlestown. Slept in a farmyard. Twelve miles. The next
day, march toward Harpers Ferry and [the] Shenandoah at Keys Ferry. Whole
brigade together. Fine river and valley. Skirmish all P. M. Heavy cannonading
at Snickers Ford. Twenty-three miles. Spent Tuesday (19th) skirmishing with
Bradley Johnson's Cavalry between camp on Bull Skin and Kabletown. Rodes'
Division try to take us in and fail after a brisk fight. Six miles. Wednesday
(20th), back to Keys Ferry and Harpers Ferry [and] thence to Charlestown;
ordered to join General Crook. Ten miles.
SOURCE: Charles
Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard
Hayes, Volume 2, p. 483-4
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