Camp, May 29, 1863, 11 p. M.
Your Capri and
Sorrento have brought back my Campagna and my Jungfrau and my Paestum, and
again the season is “la gioventù
dell anno,” and I think of breezy Veii and sunny Pisa and the stone-pines of
the villa Pamfili-Doria, — of course, it is right to wish that sometime we may
go there; of course, the remembrance of such places, and the hope of 'visiting
them in still pleasanter circumstances, makes one take “the all in the day's
work” more bravely — it is a homesickness which is healthy for the soul. I
should not have criticised your wishing that, but I did feel a little
superstitious about the way in which you thought of going: I don't believe you
wish there was no “harness,” nor yet to be out of harness, by reason of a break-down:
collars are our proper “wear,” I am afraid, and we ought to enjoy going well up
to them ; but when the time for a free scamper comes, huzza for Italy!
I am sorry that my
Stanton summons frightened you, and yet I am again going to startle you by saying
that to-day I was directed by General Casey to report at once how much notice I
required to take the field. I replied two hours, officially: this does not mean
anything: I relate it because a succession of these false alarms makes the real
start a relief when it comes. I have seen how it works with men and officers, —
it is human nature.
SOURCE: Edward
Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 249-50
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