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Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 21, 1864

Sun all day, but a little hazy; perhaps a battle.

There was quite a battle yesterday on the south side. The accounts in the morning's paper fall short of the whole of our success.

The enemy, it is said to-day, did not regain the works from which they were driven, but are now cooped up at Bermuda Hundred. Nothing is feared from Butler.

Nothing from Lee, but troops are constantly going to him.

I saw some 10,000 rusty rifles, brought down yesterday from Lee's battle-field. Many bore marks of balls, deeply indenting or perforating the barrels. The ordnance officer says in his report that he has collected many thousands more than were dropped by our killed and wounded. This does not look like a Federal victory!

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 216

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