CINCINNATI, May 16,
1861.
DEAR UNCLE: — I have got your favor of the 14th. . . . You
say nothing about my going into the war. I have been fishing for your opinion
in several of my late letters. Unless you speak soon, you may be too late.
My new business arrangement and my prospects, bad as times
are, are evidently good. Whenever other lawyers have business, I shall easily
make all that is needed; but still, as Billy Rogers writes me, “This is a holy
war,” and if a fair chance opens, I shall go in; if a fair chance don't open, I
shall, perhaps, take measures to open one. So don't be taken by surprise if you
hear of my soldiering. All the family have been sounded, and there will be no troublesome
opposition.
In view of contingencies, I don't like to leave home to
visit you just now. I shall be able to leave money to support the family a year
or two, without reckoning on my pay. Events move fast these days.
Since writing the foregoing, Judge [Stanley] Matthews
called, and we have agreed to go to Columbus to lay the ropes for a regiment.
There are a thousand men here who want us for their officers.
Sincerely,
R. B. HAYES.
S. BlRCHARD.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 17-8
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