[151]
might or could be done, that there still existed a feverish anxiety that I should try and do something.
Now that I have been weakened, I presume the country will not be so exigeante.
Culpeper Court House, Va., September 27, 1863.
We are having lovely weather at present; our camps are beautifully situated at the foot of the Blue Ridge, with the mountains in view, with pure air and plenty of good water; the best country in Virginia we have yet been in.
I had a visit yesterday from the Rev. Mr. Coles, Episcopal minister at the village, who told me he had seen Mr. Wilmer some few weeks since, and he had talked a great deal of me, and told him I had been his parishioner.
He says Mr. Wilmer is not connected with the army, and has no church, but occupies himself in works of charity, and when he saw him he was on his way to visit the sick and wounded of the Confederate army, after its return from Pennsylvania.
I have tried, but unsuccessfully, to get some news of the Wises.1 Mr. Wise's command undoubtedly went with Longstreet to Tennessee, but whether he went I am not able to ascertain. Headquarters army of the Potomac, September 30, 1863.
I am sorry to see you so anxious about me, because it is impossible to keep you constantly advised of what is going on, and your imagination undoubtedly makes matters worse.
You must try and be resigned, and not anticipate evil, but wait for its actual arrival.
My position is of course liable to misconstruction so long as the public are ignorant of the truth, but the time will come when they will be enlightened, and then I shall be all right.
Of course, if people believe that Lee has no army, and that I have an immense one, it is hard to expect them not to inquire why I do not do something; but when they come to know that just as I was about trying to do something, my army was suddenly reduced to a figure a little greater only than Lee's, and that he occupies a very strong position, where the natural advantages in his favor more than equalize the difference in our forces, they will understand why I cannot do anything.
I have remained here to offer Lee battle if he chooses to come out of his stronghold, and to prevent by my threatening attitude his sending any more troops to Bragg.
Whether I will get any credit for this is perhaps 