"Death does seem to have all he can attend to"

On August 7, 1862, George Alfred Hitchcock (born in Massachusetts in 1844) was mustered into Company A, 21st Massachusetts Infantry. From this date until January 1, 1865, he kept a meticulous daily diary. His first experience in battle was at Fox's Gap on South Mountain, and then an attack across Burnside's Bridge at Antietam. Then came the disastrous Union advance toward Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg; a journey by rail to Paris, Kentucky, via Pittsburgh, Columbus (drunken 21st Infantry sold