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The following transcription has been completed but has not been checked for accuracy by Special Collections Research Center staff.
I had to work my way back from house to house until I
reached the hospitable home of Mr. Cyrus Branch, about thirteen
miles above Williamsburg.  Here I found some of my possessions that
had been sent out of the place before it evacuation.  Among them as
carpet.  My Mother had given me half a dozen good pieces and with my
candles I felt on a level with Croesus.  After the delay of a few days a covered
cart was secured for my use and a lad of fifteen for a driver, another
cart was to go in company with an old and experienced driver, a Confeder
-ate soldier, who had been visiting his home in that neighourhood, for guard
and escort.  To these people I probably owed my life.  I afterwards understood
that my departure was timely for within a few days a body of Cavalry was
sent up the County to “overhaul”? one, doubtless I should have been arrested
and carried back.  I did my Country and his cause one piece of
service on this trip, which should reconcile me to its many dangers.  Our
Scouts had laid a plan to drive in or capture the Yankee Pickets on the
different points above Williamsburg on a certain night.  A traitor betrayed
this fact to the enemy.  “I would not die in that woman’s company.”? The
guard was at once doubled and every arrangement made to repel or
capture the Scouts.  This fact I learned at the lines.  Before the appointed
time I was able to convey to them a warning of danger, and their proposed
attack was not made.  the country through which we passed on our way
back to Richmond was one of extreme desolation and lifelessness. The farms
seemed never to have been cultivated, fences down and gone, houses deserted
or filled with negroes, waving fields of grain supplanted by the brier
and noxious weeds.  I do not remember seeing even a hare cross our path
though it is probable that “the fox looked out of the window”? of some
abandoned home.
    On the afternoon of the first day it began to snow hard and fast
and all traces of the track were soon wiped out, and had
I been alone with my young driver we would probably have perished
in the cold and darkness.  Night had set in before we found
shelter, one or two houses were approached which were occupied by
negroes, but at last the Confederate and his drive discovered a large house
with a faint glimmer of light under the door, after loud and repeated
knocking the door was opened by an old man who timidly and reluctant
-ly admitted us.  I suspect he had suffered equally from friend & foe
and regarded all new comers as messengers of evil.  What a picture he present
=ed when he came into his parlor of which I had taken possession, to
collect his valuables which he hid in his big pockets.  His hair long and
unkempt, a fur cap on his head under which his eyes shone out like those of
some beast, but a cowed melancholy, misused beast that excited my
commiseration.  What a solitary, anxious life he was leading with his two
little children.  I did not see them, they had gone to bed and doubtless were
too ragged and dirty for presentation in the morning.  This poor old man had
only a cup of coffee to offer us, I suspect even that was made of pea-nuts, which
I declined thinking he could not spare it.  How often have I thought since of that
dreary home, made so by the marching and counter-marching of contending
forces.  I passed a comfortable night on an old fashioned sofa before a
roaring fire, the Confederate and his driver snatched such comfort as the
chairs afforded, while our old host took care of my young driver with
his own children.  Our second day was bright and cold and it was necessary
more than once to break the ice in front of our horses to prevent their slipping.
Once I got out of my cart and walked to repent it for years, my feet were
slightly frosted and I did not get over it for a long tine,  this day we
passed over the Battle-field of Cold Harbor.  The second battle of
that name, if my memory serve me was fought the June previous.
While I am not one of those women
who “on bloody horrors feast and laugh”?
I could not view with indifference the
evidences of the carnage that still existed.
The haste with which the Federals had
buried their dead, here and there an
arm or leg protruding through the snow
from the hastily dug trench, a ghastly
spectacle, but one that proved plainly
that the Confederates had been victorious.
    About ten o’clock that night
we reached Richmond.  How thankful
I was to find myself once more  under the
shelter of the Confederate Capital “girdled
still with its waist of iron”?.  With all its
privations and suffering it was better
than being in the Enemy’s Lines
    And thus ended my
        Peninsula Campaign