July 10, 1862. Thursday.—. . . I wrote this morning a cheerful letter to Mother. I think often these days of the sad loss six years ago; my dear, dear sister, — so —. But it is perhaps for the best. How she would suffer during this struggle!
I have just read the Commercial’s story of the six days’ battles. What dreadful fighting, suffering, weariness, and exhaustion were there! The letters in the paper of the 5th are agonizing in the extreme. The telegraphic news diminishes our loss in the battles before Richmond, and gives, I think, exaggerated reports of the enemy’s loss. They are said to have lost from thirty to sixty thousand!!
