_2 o'clock, 28th April._ DEAREST MOTHER--Just as I was going to mail this
I received authentic information [that] Burnside's army is now about 16 or
18 miles south of here, at a place called Fairfax Court House. They had
last night no orders to move at present, and I rather think they will
remain there, or near there. What I have written before as a rumor about
their being to be held as a reserve, to act whenever occasion may need
them, is now quite decided on. You may hear a rumor in New York that they
have been shipped in transports from Alexandria--there is no truth in it
at all. Grant's Army of the Potomac is probably to do the heavy work. His
army is strong and full of fight. Mother, I think it is to-day the noblest
army of soldiers that ever marched--nobody can know the men as well as I
do, I sometimes think.
Mother, I am writing this in Willard's hotel, on my way down to hospital
after I leave this at post office. I shall come out to dinner at 4 o'clock
and then go back to hospital again in evening.
Good bye, dear mother and all.