Camp Jones, Flat Top Mountain . — Took the men to
Glade Creek to wash. Water getting scarce in this quarter. The men danced to
the fiddle, marched to music, and had a good time generally. Rode, walked, and
read "Seven Sons of Mammon."
Read the account of the disaster on White River, Arkansas,
to the gunboat, Mound City. The enemy sent a forty-two-pound ball through her
boiler and a horrible slaughter followed, scalding and drowning one hundred and
fifty men!
General Pope appointed to "the Army of Virginia" —
being the combined forces of Fremont, Shields, Banks, and McDowell, now in the
Valley of Virginia. Sorry to see Fremont passed over but glad the concentration
under one man has taken place. General Pope is impulsive and hasty, but
energetic, and, what is of most importance, patriotic and sound — perfectly
sound. I look for good results. — Rained in the evening.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 293-4
