After my paternal grandmother's death (close to 30 years ago), I inherited a chunk of a Civil War diary from an unknown relative. I had made an electronic file of it to distrbute to other family members, but that file has long disappeared. Luckily, I kept several paper copies and have begun re-entering it on Google Docs. Here is the entry of October 28, 1862:

At Fayetteville this morning, we arrived here just at daylight. The 7th Missouri Cavalry ran the rebel picket out of town just before we got in town. We stacked our arms and rested a while. We was then ordered on after the rebels. Company R was ordered out to skirmish. They came across the rebels at a creek and the rebels fired a whole volley at Company R and wounded one man in the hand. Company R returned the fire. The whole Regiment was then ordered up on the double quick, which we done bravely, but the rebels were all cavalry and could outrun us. Company G was then ordered out to assist Company R which they done. Many of Company G took the left side of the road and R the other. Company G did not skirmish very far before we saw a Butternut in the bushes. We excited a fight right here. He was on horseback, we called him to halt, but he tried to run the faster and five of us shot at him, but did not fetch him from his horse, but we wounded him as after the last shot was fired at him. We saw him throw up his arms and heard him holler “Oh, oh.” The last shot was fired by T.C. Johnson of our Company and he deserves the credit of wounding him and will receive it. We were then ordered back to Fayetteville and camped for the night after running the Secesh all 7 or 8 miles.