I wrote immediately to Unde Eb and told him of the letters I had sent to Hope, and of my effort to see her.
Late in May, after Virginia had seceded, some thirty thousand of us were sent over to the south side of the Potomac, where for weeks we tore the flowery fields, lining the shore with long entrenchments.
Meantime I wrote three letters to Mr Greeley, and had the satisfaction of seeing them in the Tribune. I took much interest in the camp drill, and before we crossed the river I had been raised to the rank of first lieutenant. Every day we were looking for the big army of Beauregard, camping below Centreville, some thirty miles south.
Almost every night a nervous picket set the camp in uproar by challenging a phantom of his imagination. We were all impatient