July 7, 1864
I paid a visit to Brigadier-General Barlow, who, as the day
was hot, was lying in his tent, neatly attired in his shirt and drawers, and
listening to his band, that was playing without. With a quaint hospitality he
besought me to “take off my trousers and make myself at home”; which I did
avail of no further than to sit down. He said his men were rested and he was
ready for another assault! — which, if of real importance, he meant to lead
himself; as he “wanted no more trifling.” His ideas of “trifling,” one may say,
are peculiar. It would be ludicrous to hear a man talk so, who, as De Chanal
says, “a la figure d’un gamin de Paris,” did I not know that he is one of the
most daring men in the army. It would be hard to find a general officer to
equal him and Joe Hayes — both my classmates and both Massachusetts men. Hayes
now commands the Regulars. He could not have a higher compliment.
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 186
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