Headquarters 5th Provisional Corps,
Camp 5 miles from White House, May 20, 1862.
Dear Father, — General Porter has been placed in command of a corps which consists of his old division now commanded by General Morell, and Sykes’s brigade of Regulars. It is called a provisional corps, I imagine, because it is of McClellan’s making, and is not firmly established. It will, however, be a permanent thing, I suppose. We moved yesterday from our camp at White House to this place, called from the name of the railroad station, Tunstall. The White House farm belongs to a man named “Rooney” Lee,’ who was in ’58, and was in College with me about two years. He left some six months before his class graduated, to enter the army, and at the breaking out of the Rebellion he left our army and joined the rebels. While in College he was a “fast man,” like most Southerners, and was quite popular with his classmates. He little thought then that his wheat fields would be trodden down by a hostile army from the North, many of whom were his classmates.
I started for the camp the day after you went, and reached there safely the same day. I am quite well now, and shall be able to stand the march to Richmond.
We shall start again to-morrow and move on. I don’t know how far we shall go.
The country around here is quite pretty. The trees clothed in their new leaves look fresh and beautiful, and the aspect of the country itself, varied by thickly wooded hills, and fertile plains, presents a very agreeable view to the eye. The bridges over all the small streams and brooks are all burned, so that fast marching is difficult, as we have to wait for the bridges to be repaired before our wagon trains can move.
I meet John Hayden quite often now, he being attached to Sykes’s brigade. It is quite a pleasure to me to see any of my classmates out here, and especially Hayden, who is one of my best friends. He is attached to Captain Edwards’s battery.
The water here is very disagreeable to me, for it is strongly impregnated with sulphur, which I do not like at all. It comes especially hard to me, who do not like tea and coffee, and who am obliged to make water my sole beverage.
I hear that Colonel Lee is very anxious to be made military governor of Richmond. I wish they would gratify him, and place him in that position. How mad it would make some of the Richmond people, and what a triumph it would be for him.
How did you and Mother spend your time after you left me, and did you enjoy the end of your journey as much as the beginning? . . .
Opinions vary as to whether we shall have a fight or not before reaching Richmond. My opinion is that we shall have a fight, although our corps may be held in the reserve. . . .
