1862 May 27 about 5 miles from Hanover Junction, Va.

[from the diary of John Tyler of Letcher's Artillery]

May 27^th.  Awoke this morning still rain-

-ing and we saturated through & through.

Started off in about half an hour after

rising.  Passed a house on the road where

the men got at whiskey.  Halted a short

distance from it on the road to feed

the horses.  Two or three of us went back

and took breakfast there which con-

-sisted of coffee, biscuits & fat bacon,

for which the moderate sum of .88 cts each

was charged. – After the battery had

moved on from this point, the road

became so bad that we halted and the

Capt. went down a new road that turned

off on our right to see if we could not

cut off the bad roads by going around –

while the Capt was gone the whiskey com-

-menced to take effect, and a general fight

ensued, in which about one half the Comp-

-any was engaged swords were drawn &

pistols.  The command devolving on us

I had at first a good deal of difficulty

in getting the men to listen to me;  but

in a short time, after taking a pistol

from one of them & depriving others of their

swords, & ordering the men to their

posts, the riot was stopped without

my drawing my pistols, although two

or three times I started to unfasten my

holsters.  I was very glad the Capt. was

not there for he would certainly have

shot some of them.  He came up a few

moments after and was just about

reviving it by calling out in an ex-

-cited tone “what is the matter here”

etc when I told him not to say any thing

at all as it was all over, and the best

thing we could do was to start on.  So

we took the road that branched off

towards Ashland, leaving the rest of

the train to pursue their way over the

bad road we left.  We reached Ashland

in a short time, as it was only a mile

off.  There we stopped long enough to get

some corn for our horses.  During which

time I went down to see Mr. Macmurdo’s

family with Mr. Pemberton whom I met

at the Depot.  Took a wash there & res-

-ted a short time, when Mrs. Mac [letter lined through] gave

me a bundle of biscuits & ham for my

haversack, most acceptable I can as-

-sure you.  Left Ashland on a good road

to join our train at a little beyond Kilbys

Mill station.  When we reached the railroad

we found Genl. Anderson & staff, who

told us that orders had been issued for our

return to Hanover Junction, & we started

back on our return, immediately after

drawing some crackers for the men they

nor me having had any thing to eat since

early in the morning.  We Camped about

5 miles from Hanover junction at 6 o’c [The time of “6” is not perfectly clear.]

[transcription by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards]

MSS 6150