EBEN HOLDEN 

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