Major Wilder Dwight: August 26, 1861

Washington, August 26th, 1861.

I am probably to leave for home, i. e. camp, to-morrow. Everything has gone quite well with me. I put up with my classmate, A. S. Hill, who is the correspondent of the Tribune. I slept as well as one can in a bed. To-day I have been in the saddle pursuing quartermasters, providing rations, arranging for a departure to-morrow if possible. I dined with William, and this evening we have been out together to see General Couch's camp. William is in fine spirits, full of energy and go. He is making his regiment as perfect as the material will allow, and is full of his work. I should be glad to feel in trim for a letter, but I am too tired for it now; besides, General Heintzelman, who had a brigade, and was wounded at Bull Run, is in the room where I write, and is talking of the fight with one or two newspaper men who are in Hill's room, which is the Tribune head-quarters. The General is an unpretending man, and his conversation is interesting, my letter not. He says that' a sufficient cause for the loss of the battle of Bull Run is, that a regiment appeared in front of Griffin's battery, within one hundred yards. The cannon were loaded with canister, just ready to fire. An officer of our army came up and begged Griffin not to fire, as the troops were our own. They carried no flag; the cannon were turned, and fired to another point, then the regiment opened fire, killed all the cannoneers, and took the battery. The discharge of that canister would have cut that regiment to pieces, and changed the result in that part of the field.' These words are just from his lips. It shows the importance of a uniform uniform, and it shows the folly of States' rights in every shape. But it is not very profitable to speculate upon the various explanations of defeat. I think we are drawing lessons from that battle. I think, too, that McClellan's spirit is a fine one. Certainly there is more vigor, military ardor, and glow here than with our column. Another influence and a stronger spirit is at work here, and I want to get within its range.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 85