August 5, 1863---"Weeping, sad and lonely."

AUGUST 5, 1863:       

A Georgia soldier writing home to his parents expressed a very bleak outlook concerning the war.

"I hate to speak my opinion about this war, but I think we will have to give it up after [all] is done, unless we can get some foreign nation to help us, for they are getting a stronghold in every state we have got, and they have got so many more men than we have got. It looks like it does not do any good to whip them here in this state, and out West they are tearing everything to pieces we have got out there. I hate to hear General Bragg has had to fall back to Georgia, and about the next thing we know the Yankees will be coming up the Chattahoochee River. But I am willing to fight them as long as General Lee says fight. But I think we are ruined now without going any further with it. One thing convinced me: that is when we went into Maryland and Pennsylvania. The [low] price of everything showed they did not feel the effects of this war, and I saw a great many men that are fit for service. Pennsylvania is the only free state I ever was in, but there only a few Negroes there and it is [as] fine a country as I ever saw for living easy. As far [as] I am concerned, I wish every Negro in America were in Africa [and] there was no way to get on here. This war is hard to account for. . . ."

I Remember The Hour When Sadly We Parted (also known as "When This Cruel War Is Over" and "Weeping, Sad and Lonely")

August 4, 1863---The Bombardment of Battery Wagner

AUGUST 4, 1863:       

Battery Wagner in South Carolina is put under U.S. naval bombardment.

August 3, 1863---"What Good The Mob Has Done"

AUGUST 3, 1863:      

The New York Times publishes an editorial entitled What Good The Mob Has Done, bitterly decrying the racism and violence, and the apparent conspiracy that sparked the mob, stating:

“The bloody punishment of the New-York mob, [has] destroyed any possibility of the success of the Peace party, or of European interference.”

August 2, 1863---A Southerner laments: "The Yanks is a whiping our army"

AUGUST 2, 1863:       

The Army of The Potomac and The Army of Northern Virginia encamp on opposite sides of the Rappahannock River, which in places is less than 60 yards wide. Richard Henry Brooks, a Confederate, writes home to his wife about conditions in camp:

"...our fair (sic) is very hard it is the hardest fair we have ever had since we have bin in the war. I think the war can not last much longer. We have not been whiped yet but the yanks is a whiping our army every where else an I think we will soon have to give it up. they have got so many more soldiers than we have got it is thought among us that we will soon have to give it up an if we ever have to give up I want us to do it now before any more of us gets killed. ..."