Rained four or five hours, part very violently. I fear we can't cross
Piney. Sent to Piney; find it too high to cross teams, but not so high as to
preclude the hope that it will run down in a few hours after the rain stops
falling.
A cold rain coming; men sing, laugh, and keep mirthful. I poke about
from [the] major's tent to my own, listen to yarns, crack jokes, and the like.
Avery won a knife and fifty cents of Dr. McCurdy (a cool-head Presbyterian)
today at (what is it?) freezing poker! The doctor couldn't play himself and
sent for Bottsford to play his game. This, Sunday! Queer antics this life plays
with steady habits!
Received by Fitch, Company E, a Commercial of 16th. Pittsburg
battle not a decided victory. Beauregard in a note to Grant asks permission to
bury his dead; says that in view of the reinforcements received by Grant and
the fatigue of his men after two days' hard fighting, “he deemed it his duty to
withdraw his army from the scene of the conflict.” This is proof enough that
the enemy was repulsed. But that is all. Two or three Ohio regiments were
disgraced; [the] Seventy-seventh mustered out of service, [the] Seventy-first
has its colors taken from it, etc., etc Lieutenant De Charmes, the brother of
Lucy's friend, killed.
What a day this is! Cold rain, deep mud, and “Ned to pay.” Cold and
gusty. Will it snow now?
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 231-2
