September 7th
We hear heavy skirmishing on the Millwood road, and are ordered to be ready for action. Adjutant Gayle and Sergeant-Major Bruce Davis keep busy carrying such orders from company to company. The Richmond papers bring us the sad news of the fall of Atlanta. It grieves us much. Atlanta is between us and our homes. It is only seventy miles from where my [434] dearly loved mother and sisters live, and all mail communication with them is now cut off. It pains and distresses me to think that La Grange and Greeneville, Georgia, may be visited by raiding parties, and my relatives and friends annoyed and insulted by the cowardly and malicious Yankees, as the noble and unconquered people of the Valley have been.
