1862 May 5 Lynchburg, Va.

[from the diary of William M. Blackford of Lynchburg Va., bank officer, editor and former diplomat, with five sons in the Confederate Army]

Monday 5 Another rainy disagreeable
day--What weather!  Rumors that
Norfolk is to be abandoned and te navy
yard destroyed--and that our army
is falling back on the peninsula 30 or 40
miles to the line of the Chickahominy
this is good policy--saw Col Tho. Pres-
ton of 28th Regt who was not re-elected
-What a wretched system it was to be adop
ted by sensible men--Hard at work
in Bank.  Nothing very material dur-
ing the day.

MSS 38-258