I cannot express to you the pain and mortification I have experienced to-day in listening to the distant sound of the firing of my men. As I can be of no further use here, I respectfully ask that, if there is a probability of the conflict being renewed to-morrow, I may be permitted to go to the scene of battle with my staff, merely to be with my own men, if nothing more: they will fight, none the worse for my being with them. If it is not deemed best to intrust me with the command even of
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orders.
On the 26th he was ordered to Alexandria, and reached there the same day. In the mean time the corps of Heintzelman and Porter had sailed from Newport News and Yorktown, on the 19th, 20th, and 21st, to join General Pope's army; and those of Franklin and Sumner followed a day or two after.
General McClellan remained at Alexandria till the close of the march.
A brisk intercourse by telegraph was kept up between him and the commander-in-chief with reference to General Pope's movements and the defence of Washington; but no specific duty was assigned to him, and his brave army was by parcels detached from him, and sent to take part in movements in regard to which it is easy to see he had the gravest misgivings.
Few experiences in life are more trying than to see things going wrong and have no power to prevent it. The following extract from a despatch sent from the camp near Alexandria, on the 30th of August, while the disastrous second battle of Bull Run was going on, shows how much he felt and how much he suppressed:--
Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 1864.
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