Thursday, August 4. — Started for Columbia to-day at 6 A.M. Reached Greensboro about noon, and remained there until 6 P.M. It was election day in North Carolina, and this town is looked upon as rather Union in its feeling. Some of the inhabitants seemed to sympathize with us somewhat. Distance from Danville forty-eight miles. Started at 6 P.M. for Charlotte. The engineer and conductor were both drunk, having been celebrating the day (election day); the cars (old cattle cars) were nasty and dirty, the track, a single one-strap rail, in bad condition, and the train an hour behind time. We were to meet the train from the South at a turn-out some miles ahead, and taking everything into consideration, we had about as lively, exciting and unpleasant a ride as I ever hope to indulge in. The train went faster than I have ever been before, so much so that the cars would actually jump from the rail, and yawn and open everywhere. Our destination on this heat was Charlotte, one hundred and ten miles.
War Diary and Letters of Stephen Minot Weld.
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