I visited Washington
to-day, through such rain and such mud, as no civilized country, save this, can
sustain, and preserve its character for purity. Am back to-night. On my return,
I find on my table the following:
"General
Order No. 11.
"HEADQUARTERS, &C.
"When
the time arrives for the troops of this Brigade to move, the following
will be the allowance of the means of transportation:
"Five
wagons to the companies of a Regiment (two wagons to each company); one wagon
to the Regimental Hospital.
"Each
wagon will carry the forage for its horses. The sixty rounds of reserved
ammunition will be carried in extra wagons. In the company, wagons will be
carried rations for two or three days, company mess equipage, and officers'
baggage, which will in no case exceed the amount by regulations for baggage in
the field. The forage for horses of regimental and field officers will have to
be carried in their wagons. This notice is given so that soldiers and officers
may be aware, that all property not above mentioned, to be preserved, had
better be removed, for if the troops march, it is probable the first notice given
will be the presence of wagons for loading,
“By order of Brig. Gen. ———.”
Now that begins to
look like business, and if our General means to put us in the way of doing
something if it will only not prove another counterfeit cry of "wolf"—we
shall be pleased. Gen. McClellan has already grown several inches in the
estimation of those whose confidence began to get shaky. I do not like that
expression of "for if the troops march." It looks a little wolfy. But
I shall try to think it means "go in."
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, pp. 75-6
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