Camp Leslie, near Falls Church,
Fairfax County, Va., Oct. 8, 1861.
Friend P—s.:—
In accordance with your expressed desire and my own promise, I have commenced writing to you. I intended to have written before, but an aversion to writing at all, which I have acquired in camp, is my only excuse. The inconveniences, or the total want of all conveniences, makes letter-writing in camp a very different thing from the same at home. If you find my letter written with a pencil, my paper soiled, my pencilmanship execrable, and the whole thing miserable, please don’t set me down as one who knows no better or cares for nothing better, but excuse me as the victim of circumstances.
You will see by the date that I am in the advance army. Our Colonel has recommended us to General McClellan as a well drilled regiment, and we have been assigned the honorable position we now occupy. We reached Washington on Thursday evening, September 19th, and encamped on Meridian Hill, on the north side of the city, staying there long enough to get our arms, equipments and part of our uniforms, and see some of the lions (the Capitol, Patent Office, Arsenal, Old Abe and family, etc.), and then we crossed the Long Bridge and set foot on the “sacred soil”; the soil may be sacred, but we sacrilegious Yankees can’t help observing that it is awfully deficient in manure. It is so poor that buckwheat or beans won’t grow more than an inch high, and pennyroyal just sticks out.
We camped a few days near Fort Corcoran, on Arlington Heights, and then moved on to our present position. We are on Hall’s Hill, lately the line of the rebel pickets. We are in sight of Falls Church and the rebels are just beyond in some force. We expect to move down there this week, when they will have to fight or leave. They will probably choose the latter.
You probably read in the papers so much of the details of camp life that I won’t bore you by any lengthy description. Our regiment, I suppose, lives as all others do. Five of us sleep in a tent six feet by seven and keep our arms and accoutrements, too, in it. Our cooking is done in the open air, by swinging our camp kettles on poles over the fire. We live on salt beef, bacon, hard bread and beans.
Oct. 9th. I commenced writing yesterday, but was obliged to stop to attend drill, a very common incident in soldier life. The first thing in the morning is drill, then drill, then drill again. Then drill, drill, a little more drill. Then drill, and lastly, drill. Between drills, we drill, and sometimes stop to eat a little and have a roll-call.
General McClellan and staff, the Prince de Joinville, Due de Chartres, General McDowell and other notables visited us the other afternoon. This morning eight of our company went out on picket. I expect to go to-morrow. We look on it as an honor to be selected for pickets. I saw a flake of snow this morning. Night before last we had a tremendous storm, a heavy shower accompanied by hail and a furious wind. Many tents were blown flat, our Lieutenant’s among the number. We saved ours by holding it down, but were almost flooded out with the water. A baggage wagon, weighing nearly a ton, was lifted clear from the ground, and blown with its four horses some ten or twelve rods into the marsh. Our First Lieutenant was blown as much as twenty rods down into the edge of the wood before he could stop.
We are soldiering in earnest now. No Camp Wright work. I like it much better, and our men drill a great deal better when they feel that they are so near the enemy and see the need of improving their time.
I have had only one letter from home since I left. I am expecting one now, and have been for some time.
I do not think there will be any great battle here very soon, though I have no means of knowing to a certainty.
