Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Alexander G. Downing.

Wednesday, 31st—I got a pass and went to the city again. I spent most of the day in the patent office and in the Smithsonian Institution. I also got my watch repaired, which cost me $3.00. The city seems to be astir; new buildings are growing up all over and some of the Government buildings are being improved. Except for the presence of so many soldiers in the city, no one would think that a four years’ war had just ended. The city needs most of all paved streets, for in wet weather they get very muddy and the city looks no better than a country town. The Washington monument is not yet finished and from a distance it looks like a large smokestack with the top lacking. A part of the Fifteenth Corps left for Louisville today, but all men whose time is out by October 1st were left here to be mustered out at once. All of the eastern men in Sherman’s four corps are to remain in Washington for the present. We had a temperance talk here this evening by William White Williams. I bought a medal of honor from him. Everything is going along fine.