[240] railroad track and cutting telegraph wires, thus interrupting communication with Richmond.
May 5. There are 6,000 prisoners of war at Guinea's and others coming in hourly. Among them is Brigader General Hayes, said to be a renegade native of Richmond. The prisoners were boisterous, impertinent and insulting in their conversation. A great rain storm fell and they were in great discomfort. I pity them. There are numerous foreigners among them, Germans, Swiss, Italians, Irish, et alios. Our help from such quarters is nil.
May 6. After the battle my regiment and train returned to our former camp. Everything and everybody seemed changed, sad and dejected. I greatly miss my dear friend, Captain McNeely. He was my most intimate associate and I love him as a brother. He is a graduate of the La Grange College at Florence, Ala., and taught for a while with Professor W. F. Slaton at Auburn, and, more recently, at the Military School at Tuskegee, with Captain Keeling. He is a fine scholar, a very amiable man, and popular with the company.
I am performing double duty, acting as quarter master of the regiment and in command of my company. I have repeatedly asked Colonel Pickens to relieve me from the former, but he has not consented to do so. My men urge me to return to them.
May 10. A beautiful Sabbath, recommended by General Lee as a day of thanksgiving and prayer for our recent great victory. Strange to say ‘Fighting Joe’ Hooker issued a proclamation to his army after they had retreated across the river, congratulating them upon their great victory. How could General Lee and General Hooker both be victorious? I helped to bury Captain Cox of of Company B, Twelfth Alabama, at Grace Church this afternoon. He was a gallant officer.
May 12. News of the death of General Jackson, the true hero of the war, fills the whole army with grief. He resembled Napoleon in his methods more nearly than any of our generals. Truly Lee has lost his most reliable aid, and was correct in speaking of him as his ‘right arm.’ His name and his deeds are enbalmed in our hearts. The regiment returned from picket, and I again solicited permission to return to my company and that another officer be detailed as quartermaster. Colonel Pickens replied that if his brother's commission did not arrive in three days he would relieve me.
