Frederick, Maryland, September 13, 1862.
Dear Uncle: —
We retook “Old Frederick” yesterday evening. A fine town it is, and the
magnificent and charming reception we got from the fine ladies and people paid
us for all the hardships endured in getting it.
The enemy has gone northwest. They are represented as in
great force, filthy, lousy, and desperate. A battle with them will be a most
terrific thing. With forty thousand Western troops to give life and heartiness
to the fight, we should, with our army, whip them. I think we shall whip them,
at any rate, but it is by no means a certainty. A defeat is ruin to them, a
retreat without a battle is a serious injury to them. A serious defeat to us is
bad enough. They left here, for the most part, a day or two ago, saying they
were going to Pennsylvania. They behaved pretty well here, but avowed their
purpose to ravage Pennsylvania. We had a good deal of skirmishing and a little
fighting to get this town. General Cox's Division did it. We lost Colonel Moor
of [the] Twenty-eighth Ohio, Cincinnati, wounded and taken prisoner. We
captured five hundred to six hundred sick and wounded Rebels. A few of our men
killed and wounded. The whole body (Ohio infantry) behaved splendidly.
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
P. S. — Cannon firing now in front.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 352-3
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