May 2.—Mr. Ogden, a member of Captain Ketchum’s Battery, called on me this morning. He has been discharged from that company, and is going to Mobile to join the engineering department; the one in which he served while in the British army. From all I can learn, he has been a brave and good soldier.
In the afternoon, Mr. J—— called; he, Miss—— , Dr. Herrick, and myself went to pay a visit to the Twenty-first Alabama Regiment. After spending some time in trying to discover its whereabouts, we learned that it was too far distant for us to go. We had a very pleasant ramble in the woods. I had no idea that the country around Corinth was so pretty—it being quite hilly. The woods were arrayed in their summer attire, and the “wind-whispers” through the forest had a soothing effect; like a sweet melody of other years,
“There is music in all things, if men had ears;
The earth is but an echo of the spheres.”
The whole wore an air of serenity and peacefulness—a vivid contrast to the fury that is raging in the heart of our remorseless foe. Alas! how “man marks the earth with ruin,” and curses “what heaven hath made so glorious.”
A company of “dire artillery’s clumsy car,” not “tugged by sluggish oxen,” but drawn by fine-looking horses, passed us. The scene was an impressive one. Nature looked so calm, as if in contrast with the terrible war-monsters before us. I could not look at them without thinking that, ere long, they might be belching forth their iron hail; dealing death and destruction; bringing woe to many a heart and household. General Polk and his staff passed; he looks every inch a soldier. I am told that he is much beloved in camp.
