1862 July 21 near Warrenton, Va.

[from the diary of Ephraim A. Wood of Co. C., 13th Massachusetts]


     Tuesday  July 21st/62
Cloudy all day, a little rain
in morning.  I started to go to
Camp this morn, but met the
Regt.  They were on the march
for Warrenton Springs eight miles
from here situated on
the Banks of the
Rappahannock River
I drew a new pr of
pants from the Orderly
the other day.  I took
them this morning to
a woman to shorten
the legs, and put on a

strap, for which I paid
a Quarter.  She was
a Rebel  When I went
to the house I told her,
I supposed She Sympathysied
with the Rebels.  She said
she did.  She though [t] the name
of Rebel was reather harsh.
I asked her, if a person
violated the laws of the
United States if it was not
Rebeling, therefore she must be a
Rebel.  Said I during the old Revolution
we were Rebels, and gloried in that name
for the Rebellion was just, therefore
She had not ought to think that the
name of Rebel was any harsher than Southern

[The following two lines are written in the margin and perpendicular to the rest of the letter.]
sympathyser.  We laughed and joked about it for some time and
parted very good friends.

[transcript by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards]

MSS 12021