December 6th, 1864.
I find, on inquiry, the time has not yet come for me to visit my loved home. Since the fourteenth of last month, furloughs have only been given in extreme cases. They are now entirely suspended, for a brief period, in the Ninth Corps.
Grant is concentrating his forces. The Sixth Corps has just arrived, and is moving to the left. The Nineteenth Corps is on the way. Porter is collecting his fleet of ironclads in the vicinity of Dutch Gap. Butler’s canal is nearly completed. Should this canal prove to be a success, Porter may make a desperate attempt to reach the Rebel Capital, the land force co-operating on the right and left. But this move, whatever it may be, is not the cause of furloughs being withheld, for the order is confined to the Ninth Corps. Men are going, every day, from other portions of the army. General Burnside was here on Saturday, and returned to Washington on Sunday. On Monday the order was issued: “No more furloughs from the Ninth Corps until further orders.”
Lieutenant Colonel Swift is trying to get leave to take the regiment to Michigan to recruit. General Wilcox tells him the old members have seen more than their share of hard service, and advises him to let them remain where they are until their term of service expires. Swift is ambitious, and has an “itching palm” to wear the silver eagle.
