University of Texas at San Antonio Civil War Diaries

whose music, though sweet, is more dangerous than that of mos -quitoes." Several were wounded & Capt Denny, commisary of the 5th who was riding at the head of the regt, fell dead, as a matter of course our first consternation for the moment, possessed the soul of each, and as we had time, to collect our nerves, the deep and heavy [smell?] of muskatry, the long, loud and terrible crash of the "cannon ball," as it came whining by us, told us we were about to fight our first fight. That the hopes of meeting the "enemy" which we had so often expressed, were about to be realized in the battle of "Elthams Landing"