1862 September 11 Staunton, Va.

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

Thursday, Sept. 11, 1862.

Rumored that Lincoln has called the U. S. Congress to meet
at New York. A report of a battle at the Relay House. Last
night I met at the Hotel. Maj. J. T. L. Preston and John M^cD.
Alexander, of Lexington, just from Winchester. They went
to our army to see after Wm. Preston, youngest son of the
former, who was mortally wounded in the Thursday's fight
at Manassas and died the next evening. They found the grave,
but could not bring the remains away. The Yankees were
burrying their dead on Sunday last — seemed to have just
begun — more than a week after the battles. Maj. P. gave a
             description         appearance of the
graphic account of the dead as they lay over the field — Their
faces blackened and their postures in some cases horridly
ludicrous. The buzzards had torn the entrails out of some. —
Our dead were burried soon after the battle.

Annexed is an impression
from the Yankee cut, to which
I alluded yesterday. The plate was
made before the recent battles, +
was intended to caricature the
Confederate States. It is thought
that our whole army is in Mary-
land. The newspapers of yester-
day state that Gen. Smith had  occu-
      Covington, Ky
pied Cincinnati  and given Cincinnati
four hours time for capitulation +c. +c.

[transcript by the Valley of the Shadow project]

MSS 38-258