Camp Maskell, Near Gauley Bridge, December 20, 1862.
Dear Uncle:—
Dr. Webb went home on a thirty-day furlough a few days ago. Our good health
here makes a surgeon almost unnecessary. We now have only one man in hospital —
a chance case of erysipelas. Our camp is improving. We are almost out of the
mud and the greater part of our cabins finished.
Another serious reverse. Burnside's repulse at
Fredericksburg is bad enough as it looks from my point of view. It would seem
as if neither party in eastern Virginia was strong enough to make a successful
invasion of the territory of the other — which is equivalent to saying that the
Rebellion can there sustain itself as long as, it stands on the defensive. I
don't like two things in this campaign of General Burnside. (1) It looks as if
his first delay opposite Fredericksburg was an error. (2) To attack an enemy of
equal (or nearly equal strength) behind entrenchments is always an error. This
battle is a set-off for Antietam. That forced the Rebels back across the
Potomac. This forces us back across the Rappahannock. We suffer, I fear, a
larger proportionate loss. I suspect the enemy lost but little, comparatively.
Now remains our last card, the emancipation of the slaves. That may do it. Some
signs of wavering are pointed out by the correspondents, but I trust the
President will now stand firm. I was not in a hurry to wish such a policy
adopted, but I don't now wish to see it abandoned. Our army is not seriously
weakened by the affair at Fredericksburg and very slight events will change the
scale in our favor. Push on the emancipation policy, and all will yet go well.
Our partisanship about generals is now rebuked. General
McClellan has serious faults or defects, but his friends can truly claim that
if he had retained command, this disaster would not have occurred. The people
and press would perhaps do well to cultivate patience. It is a virtue much
needed in so equal a struggle as this. If the people can hold out, we shall
find the right man after [a] while.
But I bore you with reflections that must occur to every
one.
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
S. BlRCHARD.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 377-8
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