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[[underlined]] Dec
breaking in upon its dead occupant. The groans of the poor suffers below him was harrowing in the extreme. Most of the wounded are to be brought to Washington. He said he went to an eminence from whence he could see the position of the enemys fortifications & was completely astonished that any attempt to take them in ^[[ways]] the proposed should ever have be conceived. Thee tiers of fortifications half encircle the city the river flowing in front of course when our men crossed they were at the mercy of the southern guns which fired on them from the front, the right, & the left. "In to the jaws of death rushed" our brave thousand at the senseless command of those, who refusing to listen to the protest of their brave hearts in command, thus recklessly sacrificed the blood of their country to their witless impetuosity & ambition. Mr. McIntyre said the soldiers seemed but little affected by the loss of their comrades. They have grown reckless & indifferent. 
We learned to day that all Mrs. Gen. Sumner's relations escaped.  
Our troops have captured Kingstown N.C.
Mon 21st. Admiral Davis was here last evening. He is going back to Cambridge to spend the Holidays. We had a visit also from Mr. Wyncoop. Dr. Stone the sculpter walked home with us from Bible class. 
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Dec 21st. He is a physician now in the Patent Office Hospital He does not seem to admire the new statue of Franklin by Powers. When we asked him how he liked it, he said very vainly he did not think it equal to his own.
He said he could never forget the material of which the statue was made It troubled him to think such an immense amount of marble should be supported by two such slender columns as the legs. Father was pleased with the criticism He said our ideas of ^[[proper]] proportion & beauty in architecture must be modified by our consciousness of the material employed. An entirely different style being required for iron columns from that used in marble buildings.--- Another lecture to night on "Unwritten History",the last of the course. The lecturer came in to our part of the building, after the lecture. also Gen Casey, Dr Bacon, Prof Hopkins, Mr McPherson, & his bride.

(Tuesday)
(22nd)
Father read aloud this evening ^[[an account of]] a discovery of a man who had succeeded in forming an organic substance out of inorganic. It troubled me somewhat for I thought if organic substances were thus produced by combinations of inorganic, [[underlined]] life [[underlined]] might at last be developed from these & what seemed to confirm this idea was the experiment of a man who had taken eggs of certain insects. 
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