Cross Lanes, Virginia, Sunday, September 22, 1861.
Dear Mother: —
. . . We are waiting for good weather to go in pursuit of the enemy. Unless
some calamity occurs to us at Washington, so as to enable the Rebels to
reinforce Wise and Floyd, I do not think they will fight us again. We shall
probably not pursue more than forty miles to Lewisburg or White Sulphur
Springs, and then our campaign closes for the season. You see, probably, that I
am appointed judge-advocate for the department of the Ohio. This includes the
State of Ohio, and, should I continue to hold the place, I shall probably be
required to go to Columbus and Cincinnati in the course of my duties. But I
shall get out of it, I hope, in a month or so. It will separate me from my
regiment a good deal, and the increase of pay, about forty or fifty dollars per
month, and increase of honor, perhaps, is no compensation for this separation.
I have acted in all the cases which have arisen in General Rosecrans' army. I
shall be with my regiment soon again, I hope. While the general is in the same
army with them, we are together, of course. I am constantly interrupted. I am
today in command of the regiment, Colonel Matthews being unwell, so I am
perpetually interrupted. Good-bye.
Affectionately,
R. B. Hayes.
Mrs. Sophia Hayes.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 101
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