At the end of the diary are these words:
Horror of the war in South Carolina in 1865.
Very little that people know who has not witnesses of the distresses and troubles that follow an army in pursuit of the enemy. While the roar of the cannon can be heard clocking through the valleys and thundering through the mountains which serves to tell to all the nation that pain and death is in the land. Oh what horrow is is to witness this scene. While heavy colonaides are advancing on the enemy which lies concealed behind some enclosure. And the death shots of their muskets lay many beneath the foot of their comrade to be trampled on as stones of the earth and the crys of the wounded and dying seem to mingle with the boom of the cannon and to descent away to the ears of all the country. While men are rushing on in the greatest of fury and confusion right into the mouths of cannon and and the points of the bayonet. Oh to hear them. Bitter oaths that come from the mouths of pursuing men mixed in with groans of the dying. But distress does not stop here. Oh no. But turn your attention to the citizens of South Carolina while this expedition was ensuing while the rebel army was retreating through their midst in fury and confusion destroying and misslaying as they went and the federal in pursuit of them burning all out houses and cotton and cotton gins: thrashers and mills, factories and foundry, all government works together with nearly all the towns and a vast quantity of dwellings. The eye could not be turned anyway but it could see the vast columns of smoke ascending towards the sky. It would rise to an extensive height and then it would seem to turn and bend over the land, to behold the scene that ensued from its descendents…and the crys and shouts of the women and children seemed to mingle with the roar of the fire and ascend to the sky. Oh horrow stricken country often my heart has been made to sink within me to behold these sights.