Theodore Upson, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (March 24, 1865)

Theodore Upson, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (March 24, 1865)

In this excerpt from his diary entry on March 24, 1865, Upson talked about the city of Goldsboro. He discussed how the people of Goldsboro reacted to Sherman's occupation of the city. In his entry he described the economical situation of the citizens of the city, but while being poor they were kind and hospitable towards the soldiers. Many of the citizens believed that the war was close to being over anyway and didn't wish to resist the large army that was occupying Goldsboro. Upson shows evidence of this with his interaction with one man who wished that North Carolina would have never joined the Confederacy in the first place. He blamed the entrance of North Carolina on the rest of the South, stating that "they could not keep out."

Upson, Theodore

Theodore Frelinghuysen Upson, With Sherman to the Sea;: the Civil War Letters, Diaries and Reminiscences of Theodore F. Upson, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1958), 162.

1865-03-24

Stafford, Scott

Document

Goldsboro, North Carolina

Diary

The people around here are very poor as a general thing but very kind and hospitable. There is none of the treachery we have found in other places. I was talking with an old man today; he has lost six sons in the Army. He says they did not want to go to war, but the rest of the South went in and they could not keep out. He thinks it is about over, says so many of the Johnnys want to quit, that they are having hard work to hold their Army together and I think that is true for our men are up deserters every day.