pleasant Hill, Maryland, October 11, 1861.
Dear Father, —
I receive, this evening, your pleasant letter of Tuesday. Also a very kind one
from D—. Your compliment from the general commanding is certainly pleasing. But
do not suppose that it indicates any success of mine. Remember that the path is
a new one, and be content that I shall learn its windings by and by.
Again, D—'s letter indicates the idea that I am likely to be
in command here. You will have learned that Colonels Gordon and Andrews are
both still with the regiment. This is as it should be, and as I most strongly
desire; and I confidently trust it is as it will be for time to come (I have no
wish to emulate the inexperience of colonels whom I see about me). And the team
as it now is is not too strong for the load. I cannot help feeling proud of
the regiment. It never appeared so well as now. But I have no personal ambition
about it, only an intense longing for its success as a whole. I tell you, good
regiments are great creations, and I wish we had three hundred of them,
as we might have had if everybody had put in briskly at once, as some of us
did; but I am overworking my text, as I am apt to do when I get on the
regiment.
You have succeeded in the stockings, I see. Well! they will
be a great thing for us, only you must let my patriotism feel vexed that
private aid should be necessary at this point of time. . . .
We are building an elaborate stable, thatched with straw,
for our horses, and the officers are fitting up tents with cellars and
fireplaces, as if we were established for the winter. I think, however, that we
shall hardly get “to rights,”
as they say, when the order to move will come. Dr. —, General
McClellan's Medical Director, said to me last week, “I can't tell where you 're
to be. What General McClellan knows, no one else knows.” It speaks well for the
tonic effect of Bull Run, that the press and people lie down quietly under the
thumb of McClellan, and bide his time.
SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and
Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 114-5
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