Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1885-10-23
BELEAGUERtD VICKSDUaG.


/ from "A WOmdH'S Dtdfy ~ me Otcyc,
printed as a supplemental General
Grants article IN The Cen
Bry for September
May 2Sth.-Snce that day the reg
ular siege has continued. We
are utterly cut off from the world,
surrounded by circle Of fire.
Would it be wise like the scorpion
to sting ourselves to death ! The
fiery shower of shells goes on day
and night. lis occupation, Of
course, is gone, bis Office closed.
Every man has to carry pass in his
pocket. People do nothing but eat
what they can get, sleep when
they can, and dodge the shells.
There are three intervals when the
shelling stops, either for the guns
to cool or for the gunners' meals,
| suppOse,-abOut eight IN the
morning, the same in the evening,
and at noon. In that time we have
both to prepare and eat ours. Cloth
ing cannot be washed or anything
else done. On the 10Th and 22d,
when the assaults were made on
the lines, | watched the soldiers
cooking on the green opposite.
The half-spent balls coming all
the way from those lines were
flying so thick that they we're
obliged 20 dodge at every turn.
At all the caves | could see from
my high perch, people were sitting
eating their poor suppers at the
cave doors, ready to plunge IN
again. AS the first shell again
flew they diyed, and not human
being was visible. The sharp
crackle of the nusketry.fri was
a strong contrast to the scream Of
the bombs. think all the dogs
and cats must be killed or starved,
we don't see any more pitiful ami
mails prowIing around. . + = The
cellar is so damp and musty the
bedding has TO be carried out and
laId in the SIN every day, with the
forecast that it may be demolished
at any moment. The confinement
is dreadful. To sit and listen as
if waiting for death in Il horrible
manner would drive me insane. |
don't know what others do, but we
read when [ am not scribbling in
this. H---bOrrOwed somewhere a
lot of Dickens's novels, and we re.
read them by the dim light
in the cellar. When the
shelling abates H--gOes to walk
about a little or get the Daily
Citizen which is still. issuing a
tiny sheet at twenty-five and fifty
cents a copy. 1t is, Of course, but
a rehash of SpeculatiOns, which
amuses a half hour. To-day he
heard while out that expert swim
mers are crossing the Mississippi
on logs at night to bring and carry
news to Johnston. am so tired
of bread, which / never liked,
that : eat it with tears in my eyes.
We are lucky to get a quart of
milk daily from family near who
have Il COW they hourly expect to
be killed. | send five dollars to
market each morning, and it buys
a small piece Of mule.meat. Rice
and milk is my main food ; | can't
eat the mule-meat. We boil the
rice and eat 1t cold with milk for
supper. Martha runs the gauntlet
to buy the meat and milk once o
day in a perfect terror. The shells
seem to have many different names.
[ hear the soldiers say, That's
mortar. shell. There goes a Par
rott. That's a rihe.shell.' They
are all equally terrible. A pair of
chimney.swallOws have built in the
parlOr chimney. The concuSsion
of the house often sends down parts
of their nest, which they patiently
pick up and reascend with.