May 9, 1862.
THE weather still continues remarkably fine, and the roads and fields are filled with dust, reminding one of summer. The colonel is taking advantage of it by drilling the regiment incessantly in battalion manœuvers, and now that all the officers are so well taught, the most complicated formations are executed without the slightest hitch.
The forwarding of troops to West Point goes along very slowly for want of boats, which shows McClellan did not anticipate an evacuation or speedy capture, as in either event we should be sure to need transports. There is no news from the front, and nothing doing in camp outside of routine duties. Made up the official record and various returns and received and distributed quite a mail; of late the mails have been most irregular, frequently going astray, sometimes getting entirely lost.
