Monday, November 17, 2014

Captain Charles Russell Lowell III to Charles Russell Lowell Jr., January 23, 1862

Jan. 23, '62.

I don't know whether the newspapers, which have so many facts to telegraph, have said anything about the rainy, muddy thaw which has been the most important fact in the Army of the Potomac since the first of January. It is particularly hard on cavalry, encamped on a clay bank — the horse splashed with wet clay after three hours' drill is not a cheerful spectacle to the recruit who has to clean him — it opens his eyes to some of the advantages of infantry. Our fellows, however, are kept in spirits by the constant hope of an “advance” — an advance where, or upon what, they do not stop to think; the regular cavalry in the Army of the Potomac are brigaded together under General Cooke,1 and are all kept upon this side of the river: for more than three weeks they have had orders to be in readiness at a few hours' notice: but the country on the other side is so unfavourable to mounted troops, except in small bodies, as vedettes and patrols, that I am inclined to think these orders were only a ruse to deceive Congressmen, and perhaps to get into the papers, and so find their way to the rebels.

You will be glad to hear that the Colonel is sometimes pleased to compliment me, and has even talked of rearranging the squadrons so as to give me command of one — to get a squadron is the height of a Cavalry Captain's ambition. My chance for some time, however, is still a very slim one.
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1 Brigadier-General Philip St. George Cooke commanded, during the Peninsular Campaign (under General Stoneman, Chief of Cavalry), the Cavalry Reserve, consisting of Emory's and Blake's brigades. Major Laurence Williams then commanded the Sixth Cavalry.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 220-1, 406-7

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