April 15th. This afternoon, Major Parisen and I rode over to the mouth of the inlet which is about two hundred yards wide, shallow, and full of oysters; on the other side stood a large white house, and when we rode up there appeared to be several women walking about it. Being in search of adventure, we dismounted, gave our horses to the orderly, and bailed out an old boat we discovered sunk on the beach. Finding it all right, we paddled across and walked up to the house. Three women, two young and one old, received us at the door and gave us a hearty welcome. They were dreadfully nervous, fearing our men would raid their house and murder them. They were almost beside themselves with fear, telling us they had heard such dreadful tales of the Yankee soldiers, and that they went to bed every night, expecting to have their throats cut and house burned down before morning. We quieted their fears, in exhibiting ourselves as specimens of the terrible Yankee, and soon talked them into a better state of mind. We staid over an hour; the girls were very sociable; then promising to come again, rowed back in our muddy scow, taking with us a live duck and pail of milk, for which we duly paid, in Uncle Sam’s currency. The major carried the duck and I the milk; both of us became disgusted with our burdens; the duck quacked and flapped its wings, scaring the horses out of their wits; the major’s horse got away from the orderly and ran into the woods, and it took more than half an hour to recapture him; the milk would not stay in the pail, and by the time we got home, there was little of it left, but we had lots of fun and intend repeating our visit. In the evening, the major called on General French, and explained to him the exposed situation of the women, resulting in the general’s permission to establish a guard there for their protection.
April 15th. Weather dull and looked like rain in the morning, but towards noon the clouds disappeared and the sun shone beautifully. Regiment still building roads and docks. At twelve o’clock, received orders to recall all fatigue parties and be prepared to march at a moment’s notice. As the guard placed yesterday at the house across the creek where the ladies lived had to be withdrawn, the major and I thought we might as well do it ourselves, and so took a gallop to the creek and rowed ourselves over again. The women were dreadfully sorry to lose the guard and entertained us very pleasantly, urging us to call again, if we ever came back, which we promised to do. The rowing, or rather paddling, of that old boat gave me a lot of pleasure. I was almost brought up on a boat and love the water dearly. At two P. M. we received orders to strike tents and move to the front. We marched about five miles, coming in sight of the Yorktown works, then turned into a field to the right, stacked arms, and awaited further orders. Just before dark, we were directed to pitch tents and form a regular camp. The regimental headquarters tent was soon up, and by eight o’clock we sat down around a pleasant camp fire and ate our supper of roast duck, the spoils of our creek adventure. The evening closed with much hilarity.
_______
Note: The two entries for the 15th are as published in the book. There was probably a day mis-dated in the diary or the book — perhaps the tenth — with subsequent entries off by one day.
