[from the diary of Joseph Addison Waddell, civilian employee of the Quartermaster Dept.]
August 1862
Friday evening, August 1, 1862.
This morning I heard from my office a sound
of lamentation in the street or neighboring home.
Going out I found the noise proceeded from an
upper room in the Court-house. A negro woman
informed me that it was a soldier crying because
he had to go to war! He is from the lower part
of the county, and was brought up under the con-
script act passed by Congress. Poor fellow! there
was something ludicrous in his wailings, although I
pitied him. Several men and women stood in the
street. Some laughing and others denouncing.
The Central Presbyterian, received this evening, takes
that same view of Dr. Plumer’s card that I did yesterday.
[transcript by the Valley of the Shadow project]
MSS 38-258