1862 November 29 Fredericksburg, Va.

[from the "War Journal" of George Hazen Dana of the 32nd Masssachusetts as compiled by himself from wartime letters and diaries]



                                                           Near Fredericksburg.
                                                                Nov. 29th 1862.
- -  -  -  I rode to Falmouth, yesterday, on
business, and then extended my ride along the
banks of the Potomac for about two miles; in
some parts the river not exceeding fifty feet in
width, our pickets reclining on the banks on this
side, the “grey backs” on the other.        The pickets
have agreed not to fire upon each other, but I felt
very uncertain whether they would include me in
that category.        I could hear them talk, dis-
tinctly – said one “How easy I could pick that
feller off his horse” – but I rode along without
a shot, and would not have missed the ride for
a farm, for one seldom has such a close look at
the “rebs.”

[transcribed by Mary Roy Dawson Edwards]

MSS 5130
                                                                                         29.