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lying in bed, crying, because I had to go way, and while I was scolding you for crying, I felt like crying myself.
It is very hard to be kept away from you, because there is no man on earth that loves his children more dearly than I do, or whose happiness is more dependent on being with his family.
Duty, however, requires me to be here, to do the little I can to defend our old flag, and whatever duty requires us to do, we should all, old and young, do cheerfully, however disagreeable it may be.
We came here, expecting to have a big fight with the Seceshers, but they have all cleared out, and I don't know what we shall do— whether we will go after them from here, or go back to Washington and take some other road.
I shall be very glad to hear from you again whenever you have time to write me another such nice letter.
To-day we have orders to be ready to leave at a moment's notice and prepare to go by water.
This confirms my anticipation.
The railroad to Alexandria will be in running order to-day, and I presume we will take the cars for that place, and from thence go by boat to some point down the river, not improbably Old Point Comfort.
It appears to me that Norfolk is the most important point now, and that its attempted reduction cannot be much longer delayed.
Of course, all this is surmise on my part, and is, moreover, confidential.
All we know — is that we are going somewhere pretty soon, and that we are on the eve of decided and critical events.
camp near Alexandria, March 17, 1862.
My last letter was written to you at Hunter's Mills, I think, on Friday, the 14th.
On the evening of that day we received orders to come here, and started after dark in a pouring rain, marched six miles and bivouacked.
The next day it poured all day, and the roads were in terrible condition, so that we were obliged to bivouac again and pass the night in a drenching rain.
Yesterday it held up, and we marched to our present position, within two miles of Alexandria, where we are now bivouacked on the bleak hills, awaiting further orders.
I do not think I have ever seen a much harder march than the one from Hunter's Mills to this place. 