Major Wilder Dwight: January 13, 1862

cantonment Hicks, Near Frederick, January 13, 1861.

“Si le combat est prévu, la troupe se met en grande tenue; elle doit cette politesse a un ennemi qu’elle estime.”

Dufour gives this among the rules for combats of infantry against infantry.

What a charming courtesy! what French politeness! Full uniform is the proper compliment to be paid to an enemy that you esteem. After all, none but a Frenchman could have hit upon that rule, or its reason.

But I have news for you. Was it not Sunday when I wrote? And I forgot to mention that our band was to give a grand concert on Monday evening. Spiegel, our bandleader, had been ambitious, and the Colonel encouraged him in his scheme. The result was even better than our hope. The hall was crowded. All the beauty and fashion of Frederick were there. Our band showed finely. Altogether, there was éclat in the concert. The whole closed with Hail Columbia and the Star Spangled Banner. You would be surprised to see with what hungry ears they listen to Yankee Doodle in this country. Those short-sighted persons who advise disbanding the bands would disarm our army of a great strength.

I have found to-day that Frederick is echoing the praises of the Massachusetts Second. We even think of a Promenade Concert next week. So do not turn your thoughts in regarding us to the discords of war, but rather to the mellowest harmonies of peace.

Again, art is giving us repute in another direction. Private D'Avignon, of Company I (a reduced artist, and too good for a soldier), is to have the honor to draw a picture of General Banks. So you see that we are not occupied as your fancy would have us.

I have a very pleasant letter from you to-day. I think the question, whether I have found a profession, or only lost one, is premature. I want no unripe fruit, and I think I must possess my soul in patience and in hope.

I trust father is not much dispirited. Let him wait a little longer, and perhaps we shall see something done.

I enclose you Colonel Andrews's artistic plan of our house. He made it at my request. The dimensions are twenty-four feet by eighteen feet. It is a wonderful house, and a great comfort this cold and snowy night.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 187-8