Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Diary of Mary Brockenbrough Newton: June 18, 1862

Our guard in full force to-day. It is so absurd to see the great fellows on their horses, armed from head to foot, with their faces turned towards us, standing at our yard-gate, guarding women and children, occasionally riding about on the gravel-walks, plucking roses, with which they decorate their horses' heads. A poor woman came to-day in a buggy, in pursuit of corn. She had been robbed by the enemy of every grain. This is the case with many others, particularly with soldiers' wives. I asked an officer to-day, what had become of General Stuart? He said he was a “smart fellow,” and he “guessed” he had returned to Richmond, but he “ought to have paid a visit to his father-in-law, General Cooke, commanding the United States cavalry not many miles distant.”

SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, During the War, p. 145

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