New York, July 1, '61.
Dear Mother, — Got my
orders this morning all right — have taken the oath of allegiance, and
signified my acceptance of the appointment, —so I am now fairly in the U. S.
Army. I shall leave here to-morrow evening for Pittsburg — learn from Captain
Cram of our Regiment that the captains will probably be put on recruiting duty
for a month or more. This will not be a very pleasant occupation for the summer
months, but the barracks and riding school at Pittsburg are not ready, and
anything is better than idleness or Washington.
Dr. Stone is very
impatient under Scott's wise delay.
It seems to me that
the necessity for martial law throughout Virginia and Maryland is daily
becoming stronger. Our Army is becoming demoralized — Union men are alienated
and treason is encouraged by even Banks's operations in Baltimore: he can
arrest men, but what can he do with them without martial law?
You would not like
to see me in uniform — I look like a butcher.
SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of
Charles Russell Lowell, p. 213
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