Sunday, June 29, 2025

Diary of Private William S. White, May 8, 1862

Our troops are rapidly evacuating Norfolk, and as all of them pass through Suffolk, we are, as a matter of course, in a high state of excitement. It goes hard with our troops to see such places as Yorktown and Norfolk given up without a struggle, but we have every confidence in our leaders, and hope for the best.

To-day we completed the reörganization of our company—our officers now being

Edgar F. Moseley, Captain.

Benjamin H. Smith, Senior First Lieutenant.

Henry C. Carter, Junior First Lieutenant.

James S. Utz, Second Lieutenant.

First Lieutenant, John M. West, declined to serve, and sent in his resignation, making an appropriate speech. We part with him with regret, for no kinder heart than his ever beat within the breast of man.

To-day our "right section," under the command of Lieutenant Smith, left for Zuni station on the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad. We will leave in a day or so.

SOURCE: William S. White, A Diary of the War; or What I Saw of It, p. 114-5

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