1862 November 27 Fauquier County, Va.

[from the diary of Anne Madison Willis Ambler]

Tom has been like a different child=has
not refused to say his letters since & runs
up whenever I ask him--Has said them  all
over three times to day.  I don't think I will
try whipping him again thought if I can
possibly help it--It is terrible to excite
such a spirit in so small a child. I
would rather hold it in check;
F[annie] E[mma] & I walked again & when we returned
B[ertie] & I went a mile to see a very poor girl
Ellen O Leary--whom we heard was sick=
Truly it was the abode of "filth & wretchedness"-
I never saw a more miserable family-There
are only two girls, daughters of an Irishman who
seems to be a decent working man, but his home
& children exceed everything in dirt that
I ever looked at...Met Pa as he was
returning & he told me that the day before the
Yankees had come up to  his factory & destroyed
all the machinery, & broken the factory all to
pieces inside.  His loss is about 8000-though
some of the machinery belonged to the
man who rents it Watson.

[transcribed in 1972 by her granddaughter Anne Madison Wright Baylor]

MSS 15406