1862 January 27 [Staunton, Va.]

[from the diary of Joseph A. Waddell, civilian clerk, Quartermaster Dept., Staunton, Va.]

Monday night, Jan. 27, 1862.
Little Mary is again very ill, with every proba-
bility that she will not survive. I cannot think
of her without experiencing very painful feel-
ings. But “doth God care for sparrows?” and
doth He not order whatever concerns this child?
H. W. Sheffey came up from Richmond yesterday,
and reported that nine vessels of the Burnside expe-
dition had been lost, and that the whole fleet was
probably destroyed by the fierce storm which pre-
vailed for several days last week. There is no con-
firmation, but rather a denial, to-day, of the report -
Mason has arrived from Romney, and gives a He
reports the ravages of the Federalists in that region as
shocking to the civilization of the age [or ‘ages’]. A party of them
were killing the cows or pigs of an old man , who came
to his door and union [-] with them. They charged
him with aiding the “rebels”, and upon his reply –
ing that he was a poor man and had to work for
whoever paid him, they shot him down and set fire
to his house. Mason saw a part of his body, not con-
summed, and it was riddled by bullets. He seemed to be
about 80 years of age. The Federalists killed hogs,
and piling them together left them to rot. Surely
the name Yankee will be [-] for generations
in the Southern country. The spirit of [-]
malignity which possesses them is utterly fiendish.
Simon De Montfort and his crusaders were not
more bloodthirsty and remorseless than many of the
Northern people seem to be. The U. S. Government is now
endeavoring to destroy the port of Charleston by sink-
ing old hulks off the mouth of the harbour! A North-
ern journal complacently says that the contempla-
ted advance of McClelland’s army, “will spread [-]
[-] and wailing through many a Southern house-
hold.”

[transcription by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards]

MSS 38-258