We had a great time
to-day, having sent out this morning some six thousand troops, with about one
hundred wagons, on a foraging expedition. This evening they returned, loaded
with hay, oats, corn, cows, sheep, hogs, and one Irishman—all captured from the
enemy. In this deserted and desolated country, where we have for weeks been
enjoying (?) rural life without a sign of pig or poultry, without even those
indispensable concomitants of civil life-the cries of babies, or the flapping
in the wind of confidential garments from clothes lines in the back yard*—the
sight of the woolly bleaters called back reminiscences of savory mutton and
warm under-dresses, with whispered wishes for the time when we may return to
the pleasures of civil life.
_______________
*A something
whispers to me that if this should ever be read by housekeeper, it may call up
unpleasant reminiscences of "ironing days." I hope not.
SOURCE: Alfred L.
Castleman, The Army of the Potomac. Behind the Scenes. A Diary of
Unwritten History; From the Organization of the Army, by General George B.
McClellan, to the close of the Campaign in Virginia about the First Day
January, 1863, p. 37
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