Diary of Private John J. Wyeth, September 14, 1862

Our guns are on the field somewhere, they are Enfield rifles, and report says they are good ones; they have been distributed to the guard, but it is said owing to the lack of racks in our barracks it will be several days before we get them. It is reported that our arms are a lot captured from a blockade runner, and intended for the rebels. We don't care much where they come from or for whom they were intended, if they are made so they won't kill at both ends.

SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, p. 8