Tuesday, July 31, 2012

1862 August 1 Staunton, Va.


[from the diary of Joseph Addison Waddell, civilian employee of the Quartermaster Dept.]


August 1862
Friday evening, August 1, 1862.
This morning I heard from my office a sound
of lamentation in the street or neighboring home. 
Going out I found the noise proceeded from an 
upper room in the Court-house. A negro woman 
informed me that it was a soldier crying because 
he had to go to war! He is from the lower part 
of the county, and was brought up under the con-
script act passed by Congress. Poor fellow! there 
was something ludicrous in his wailings, although I 
pitied him. Several men and women stood in the 
street. Some laughing and others denouncing.
The Central Presbyterian, received this evening, takes 
that same view of Dr. Plumer's card that I did yesterday. 

[transcript by the Valley of the Shadow project]

MSS 38-258

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