1862 October 24 Staunton, Va.

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

(Friday Oct. 24/62)

Wright asked me yesterday, at dinner time, if I heard "that rumbling noise." He said it was very loud, not like the reports of cannon — something like thunder, but there was no cloud. Sister returned from the country last evening, and says James Calhoun and others heard the noise near West View, and thought the Magazine in town had exploded. It occurred about 11 o'clock, A.M.

[transcript by the Valley of the Shadow  Project]

MSS 38-258