harges were to
be preferred against him; he knew they could not be sustained, and
believed it an attempt of his enemies to injure him and prevent his
promotion. He affirmed that he had enlisted from the purest of motives,
and entered into a general defense of his acts as an officer and
gentleman. I listened respectfully to his statement, and then said:
"Colonel, if your conduct has been such as you describe, you need not
fear an investigation. I hold in my hand the charges and specifications
of which you have heard. They are signed by my hand. I make them
believing them to be true. If false, the court will so find, and I shall
be the one to suffer. If true, you are unfit to command this regiment or
any other, and it should be known. I present the charges to you, the
commanding officer of the Third Regiment, and with them a written
request that they be forwarded to the General commanding the division."
He took the package, tore open the envelope, and seated himself while he
read.

In less than an hour Captains Lawson and Wing called on me to report
that the Colonel would resign if I would withdraw the charges. I
consented to do so.

31. Had dress parade this evening, at which the Colonel officiated, it
being his first appearance since his return.

Ascertaining that he had not sent in his resignation, I wrote him a note
calling attention to the promise made on the 29th instant, and
suggesting that it would be well to terminate an unpleasant matter
without unnecessary delay.

We had a case of disappointed love in the regiment last night. A
sergeant of Captain Mitchell's company was engaged to a girl of Athens
county. They were to be married upon his return from the war, and until
within a month have been corresponding regularly. Suddenly and without
explanation she ceased to write, why he could not imagine. He never,
however, doubted that she would be faithful to him. His anxiety to hear
from home increased, until finally he learned from her brother, a
soldier of the _Eighteenth Ohio_, that she was married. Strong, healthy,
good-looking fellow that he was, this intelligence prostrated him
completely, and made him crazy as a loon. He imagined that he was in
hell, thought Dr. Seyes the devil, and so violent did he become that
they had to bind him.

This morning he is more calm, but still deranged. He thought the straws
in his bunk were thorns, and would pluck at them with his fingers and
exclaim: "My God, ain't they s