May 14,1862

Awakened by cannon.  The firing has been 
uninterrupted all day. And so loud as to rattle 
the windows. We look from the windows, from the 
grounds from the house tops. We mingle our hopes 
and fears, our prayers. My servant Uncle Nolan 
can tell which are the Yankee guns. "Them the
deep ones." he says.


May 27, 1862

We are on the eve of fearful bloodshed. Here is 
portentous calm. A great moving of troops. As 
many as fifteen thousand passed through Richmond, 
last night, and that in the last few days Lee has
received thirty thousand troops.


June 20, 1862

How long is this to last?  We are in hourly 
expectation of a battle. It will come when 
General McClellan gets ready.  It is said that 
the two armies have been drawn up in line of 
battle for two days.  

We have hatched eight chickens today, and have 
a prospect of rearing and eating them under our 
"dear young government."  And so we go mixing 
peace and war.

Mother and I have prepared a room for General 
McClellan to stay when he takes Richmond.


June 21, 1862

The newspapers say that Beauregard and Halleck 
are both expected. Captain Alexander is in 
charge of the battle.

A young man came by. He was here last winter. He 
wanted to board with us.  He begged us to let him 
stay, saying he would sleep anywhere. He said he 
wanted to stay for the "surroundings"”.  We were
kind and polite, and we took tea with him.  We 
have to be watchful and circumspect- wise as 
serpents-harmless as doves, for truly the lions 
are seeking to devour us.


June 26, 1862

There has been skirmishing for several days. 
This afternoon I went out in the carriage with 
Mrs. Carrington.  The cannonading was heard more 
loudly as we progressed. The excitement on the 
Mechanicsville Turnpike was more thrilling then 
I could conceive. Men riding and leading horses 
at full speed- the rattle of their gear- their 
canteens and arms- the rush of the poor beasts 
into and out of the pond at which they were 
watered- the dust- the cannons on the crop roads 
and fields- the ambulances, the long line of
infantry awaiting orders.

We inquired the news of the picket who stopped 
us.  He told us that we were whipping the 
Federals right, left, and in the center- had 
taken many prisoners.  The roar of the guns 
grew louder and louder.