June 28, 1862
Went to Evans Spruill’s funeral, the first victim to the war whose funeral I have attended. His poor Mother, the accounts of her grief are terrible; her friends fear for her reason. She does nothing but walk up & down & repeat his last letter. It seems, poor lady, that she thought him recovering and was expecting him home when she received the telegram announcing his death.
The excitement about the battle is tremendous; it was on every tongue & in every heart. The news of today is still encouraging, yet we almost fear to hope. They are falling back in good order, carrying their dead & wounded & burning their stores. We have captured their siege Guns. Jackson is reported in their rear, but of that there is no certainty. They have left their rifle pits filled with sharp shooters who pick off our officers & who immediately as we advance on them throw down their guns & surrender; but our men are directed, in order to put a stop to such cold blooded deliberate murder, to tell them that it is too late, they deserve no quarter, & dispatch them immediately. Gen Lee has issued an order commanding our officers to take off their uniforms and fight without any badge by which they can be distinguished, a wise and proper precaution. The 18th N C and a Georgia Regt have suffered severely. The carnage is reported as terrible, exceeding anything ever before seen on this Continent. God be with our unfortunate wounded!
Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html
