From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, who chronicled her Louisiana family’s turbulent experiences throughout the Civil War era.
Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.
An operation to capture a Union gunboat turns into a Confederate disaster.
Sept. 10, 1864
Near Oak Ridge, La.
The famed Brigade is back again after its hurried trip to Tensas, during which it managed to capture sixteen Yankees, kill three, and kill five of its own men by a badly placed ambuscade. The object of the march was to take possession of a gunboat that was to be given up by treachery, but it proved a fiasco.
Our opinion is that the officers all got on a grand spree and so failed at the critical time. Too disgraceful if true. Jimmy and Joe were two who volunteered to board the boat when volunteers were called for. I think there were eighty in all, but it proved they were not to board the gunboat but to form an ambuscade.
How near death they were when they stood firing within fifteen paces of each other. It makes one shudder to think of it. What unnecessary risk and such culpable ignorance in the man who placed the ambuscade.
Tell your friends!
stillness of heart 
Do you know of any other primary sources like this that chronicle people’s life during the Civil War?
Check Catherine Devaroux Edmonston, E. P. Alexander, Mary Chestnut, and Sam Watkins. Those are the most famous ones.
Thank you! I will take a look at the sources that are available for these people.
The officers of the brigade that Kate Stone writes about seem incompetent. This is a reason why you always need good leadership.