1862 May 28-29 Corinth, Miss.

[From the diary of William Cox Holmes, University of Virginia alumnus in the 1st Mississippi Battalion. Diary was written in soft pencil and has been smeared to the point of illegibility at many places.  Many of the words are best guesses based on context and a few discernible letters.]

Thursday Evening 5 1/2 O Clock May 28th
It is a most beautiful evening
& every thing seems so lovely
The birds are singing as usual &c
All day there has been heavy skir-
-mishing on both sides.  We the reserves
of the Army were ordered out about
eleven oclock. We came out to
in one mile of the breast works
where our battery immediately
commenced about 12 the men
heard cannonading on our
right & was answered on the
extreme left continued for three
quarters of an hour. I was not
much, or in fact, not at all con
cerned at this the first battle
I ever had been in hearing
of--the firing continued
from about 12 P.M. & was
kept up [?] [?]
for some time [?] [?]
then heard in a perfect roar for now
[?] [?] was more exciting to
us as came in our sphere
of action, but I quietly read
my paper.  The firing again
commenced about 5 PM which
was followed by musketry, this
induced me to come out to my
present position for meditation
on the sad sight which moved
writing these thoughts.  Now
at intervals of a half min
-ute can be heard but a short
distance off  one mile at the
most the heavy firing of the
cannon & the bursting of the
shells  now the muskets hot [?]
the cannon continues to fire
"another poor fellow  got a [?]
is heard a voice--voice heard was
that me!!--silence for a
moment-a few pops of the


muskets.  Few loud reports & now
the muskets--What thoughts might
crowd on my mind were it
not so inured to such scenes
by long experience in the
camp.  With what little concern
do I hear the reports, knowing
that destruction to life follows
each.  My only concern is to
know what is to be done
Whether we will [?] Corinth
How fast do we hear them now.
Oh what a beautiful evening &
what sounds in the distance [?]
I feel no unordinary feelings at
all & I do suppose it is the
best after all--as nothing
[?] [?] the soul to take
delight in this inhuman
carnage [?] [?] [?] [?]
with no feelings of [?] but
on the contrary with horror

but I dont care one [?] I know
it is  necessity to which we
as Southern people are driven
but it is for the best for when
we get our liberty it will be
more dearly bought [?] so we
will appreciate it more. Nothing
[?] what [?]  [?]  nature dic
-tated & we should bear it with
patience & if I come out safe
in the contest I will prize it
the more & be the more happy
my only concern now is about the
end of the affair. I would like to
be home preparing for further
usefulness, but life is a grand
experiment & I had as soon have a
little of this as not.  It is the
sense of the strongest duty  I have
ever to perform & endure with all
the cheerfulness that I ever did
in my life.  My country is

my all & I know that I was con-
tending for its rights & for the
glorious possibilities of which
[?] what was about
to be overturned by its own mad-
ness & degeneracy, hence a
renewal  of the same principals
by bloody strife is necessary & should
I be killed in the contest, & on the
morrow in all possibility for from
the prospects there will be a
most obstinate contest I am perfectly
willing to die for as I have
tried to live to be prepared to
die any moment, Knowing
that the time must come & if
in defense of my country
 it will all be well, so the thought
of it does not at all frighten me
-----The firing has [?] commen
ced again &  rages  above the [?]


"Evacuation of Corinth Mississippi May 29th 1862" 
written across the top of the page at a later date

the roar of the musketry is heard
Both is now heard--silence--& so
it is in a battle.  The  [?] [?] came
in with some [?] his [?] &
some which we had taken from a
[?] from which the enemy is
[?] but the report is not good
on our side. In one place we
are driven to our breast works
all [?] & none to believe[?]
The sun is getting low & the fight
fast progresses, the cannons thun-
der & the muskets roar, every thing
is perfectly quiet. the soldiers in
the best of spirits lying about on
the ground & waiting for their
turn poor fellows it is the best
for them that they dont feel what
is going on. I would not be

without the feeling of resignabil
ity--for any thing  in [?] is
the only consolation

Holmes stops writing abruptly here and does not resume until the 25th of July

William Cox Holmes, 1840-1924, 2nd Lieut., Co. B, 1st Mississippi Battalion of Sharpshooters
MSS 38-472