Camp Porter, Feb. 8, 1862.
Dear Sister L.:—
“All quiet along the Potomac” has become a by-word, it is used so often. Nothing stirring. Mud is triumphant and all business except guard and picket duty is suspended, unless I should mention a little target practice. Last night just after roll-call we heard tremendous cheers up at the right of the regiment. Company after company seemed to vie with each other to see which could cheer loudest. Finally, when half our boys had got to bed, the orderly came into the street with “Fall in, Company K, fall in.” Out they tumbled and into line, when Captain A. said the general had just received a dispatch containing such good news that he had sent his orderly down to read it to the boys. He read a telegram stating that a fleet of gun-boats had gone up the Tennessee river, bombarded and taken the rebel Fort Henry and captured General Floyd, Tilghman and staff, twenty cannons and sixty prisoners. Captain A. proposed nine cheers for the Union victory. They were given and the Zouave tiger to close on. Every one thought that the ex-Secretary Floyd had been taken, but this morning’s papers disclose a cruel sell. Instead of Generals Floyd and Tilghman, it was General Lloyd Tilghman, commandant of the fort, who was captured. It was a great victory for us, but we were very much disappointed after all. There is no other man whom I would be so much pleased to have taken as that “thafe o’ the wurreld’ Floyd. Jeff Davis wouldn’t begin.
General Porter commands our division, containing twelve regiments or three brigades, thus:
General Fitz John Porter’s Division.
First Brigade, General Morell.
Sixty-second Pennsylvania, Colonel Black.
Ninth Massachusetts, Colonel Cass.
Fourteenth New York, Colonel —–.
Fourth Michigan, Colonel —–.
Second Brigade, General Martindale.
Twenty-fifth New York, Colonel Kerrigan.
Second Maine, Colonel —–.
Twenty-second Massachusetts, Colonel Henry Wilson.
Eighteenth Massachusetts, Colonel Lee.
Third Brigade, General Daniel Butterfield.
Sixteenth Michigan, Colonel T. B. W. Stockton.
Eighty-third Pennsylvania, Colonel John W. McLane.
Forty-fourth New York, Colonel Stryker.
Seventeenth New York, Colonel Lansing.
Artillery.
Sprague’s Rhode Island Battery.
Griffin’s Battery D. Fifth United States.
Follett’s Battery.
Cavalry.
Averill’s Regiment.
Gorham’s Regiment.
Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment.
Third Pennsylvania Regiment.
This is the force under Porter; quite a little army in itself. The Massachusetts troops are fine fellows, three regiments in the division. The “Farmers Regiment” raised by Senator Wilson is among them. He (Senator Wilson) is not the acting colonel at present, however, having returned to the Senate. The Ninth Massachusetts are mostly Irish Catholics. They will fight, I think, like the old Sixty-ninth New York at Bull Run. The Twenty-fifth New York is composed of New York roughs, Bowery boys, “Dead Rabbits,” etc. Their colonel has been court-martialed on charge of treason, communicating with the enemy, drunkenness, etc. He is deprived of his command. They seem to keep to themselves and have nothing to do with any other regiment. I never saw but one of them in our camp. The Sixty-second Pennsylvania was raised at Pittsburg and is twelve hundred strong, commanded by ex-Governor Black of Nebraska, formerly of Pittsburg. The Forty-fourth New York (the Ellsworths) you have heard enough of them to know them by this time—their camp is next to ours, and the two regiments are as united in feeling and everything as brothers. We are like one great regiment. The Seventeenth New York in our brigade seems to have a grudge against both of us.
