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could go home and see my family in Philadelphia.”
I believe there never was a man so utterly without common ambition and, at the same time, so Spartan and conscientious in everything he does.
He is always stirring up somebody.
This morning it was the cavalry picket line, which extends for miles, and which he declared was ridiculously placed.
But, by worrying, and flaring out unexpectedly on various officers, he does manage to have things pretty ship-shape; so that an officer of Lee's Staff, when here the other day, said: “Meade's move can't be beat.”
Did I tell you that Lee passed through Warrenton and passed a night.
He was received with bouquets and great joy. . . . The last three nights have been cool, almost cold, with some wind, so that they have been piling up the biggest kind of camp-fires.
You would laugh to see me in bed!
First, I spread an india-rubber blanket on the ground, on which is laid a cork mattress, which is a sort of pad, about an inch thick, which you can roll up small for packing.
On this comes a big coat, and then I retire, in flannel shirt and drawers, and cover myself, head and all, with three blankets, laying my pate on a greatcoat folded, with a little india-rubber pillow on top; and so I sleep very well, though the surface is rather hard and lumpy.
I have not much to tell you of yesterday, which was a quiet Sunday.
Many officers went to hear the Rebs preach, but I don't believe in the varmint.
They ingeniously prayed for “all established magistrates” ; though, had we not been there, they would have roared for the safety of Jeff Davis and Bob Lee! . . .
October 28, 1863
. . . The guerillas are extremely saucy of late, and, in a small way, annoying.
Night before last they dashed at a waggon train and cut loose upwards of a hundred mules and 