Record Data
Source citation
Cornelia Peake McDonald, A Woman's Civil War: A Diary, with Reminiscences of the War, from March 1862, ed. Minrose C. Gwin (New York: Gramercy Books, 2003), 116-117.
Type
Diary
Date Certainty
Exact
Transcriber
Transcription adapted from A Woman's Civil War: A Diary, with Reminiscences of the War, from March 1862 (2003), edited by Minrose C. Gwin
Adapted by Don Sailer, Dickinson College
Transcription date
Transcription
The following transcript has been adapted from A Woman's Civil War: A Diary, with Reminiscences of the War, from March 1862 (2003).
[January] 20th- It is a great effort to bring myself to write to overcome the listlessness and want of interest in things that sometimes tempts me to give up the task I have undertaken. Our victories at Vicksburg and Murfreesboro are confirmed. A few Northern papers seem to be violent against the Lincoln Administration, and it is said go so far as to demand that Lincoln and his cabinet shall be hung. The draft has aroused their ire, it has just begun to hurt them, this war, and they want it stopped. The Government is accused of fraud and dishonesty as well as crimes of every description. The Fort Wayne (Indiana) Sentinel is especially bitter against the administration. I had one this morning, procured by an accident. The thought of peace seems to be entertained by them very seriously. Governor Seymour seems to promise well. If all the Western Governors act as he says he will do, the power of Lincoln’s administration will soon be broken.
To day the walls of Mr. Mason’s house were pulled down; they fell with a crash; the roof had gone long ago. The house has disappeared now, and the place which knew it will know it no more. I suppose if I were not in this house it would share the same fate. Every outbuilding is gone, the carriage house was pulled down over the carriage, and crushed it of course. Nothing is left of them all but heaps of logs which the Yankees carry away for firewood; and I, I can scarcely tell it, help them to burn it, for they have taken all our wood and we can get no other supply, but they graciously permit us to share with them, and my boys and the Yankee soldiers stand side by side cutting up the logs and boards of the houses; and I sit by the fire, and though I know that the crackling walnut logs are from my own hen and turkey houses, I must say I enjoy the cheerful blaze. They have taken the stones of Mr. Mason’s house as well as many of our stone fences to build their fortifications. Snowing all day and could not take my walk.
To day the walls of Mr. Mason’s house were pulled down; they fell with a crash; the roof had gone long ago. The house has disappeared now, and the place which knew it will know it no more. I suppose if I were not in this house it would share the same fate. Every outbuilding is gone, the carriage house was pulled down over the carriage, and crushed it of course. Nothing is left of them all but heaps of logs which the Yankees carry away for firewood; and I, I can scarcely tell it, help them to burn it, for they have taken all our wood and we can get no other supply, but they graciously permit us to share with them, and my boys and the Yankee soldiers stand side by side cutting up the logs and boards of the houses; and I sit by the fire, and though I know that the crackling walnut logs are from my own hen and turkey houses, I must say I enjoy the cheerful blaze. They have taken the stones of Mr. Mason’s house as well as many of our stone fences to build their fortifications. Snowing all day and could not take my walk.
