The regiments called out for three months were now about disbanding, though a large number of the men at once re-enlisted for the war.
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July 27, 10 a. m.
My dear Eliza: I have just been up to the corner to see a sorry sight, the return of the 69th Regiment–oh, so shabby, so worn and weary–all sorts of hats and shirts and some with hardly any clothes at all, staggering along under their knapsacks which they should never have been allowed to carry up Broadway. The surging mass of men and women locking arms and walking with the soldiers, was wonderful. It was a wild, tumultuous, promiscuous rush–not a march. Yesterday afternoon the 8th came through. I could see from the balcony how brown they looked and sturdy, and trimmer than the 69th. The girls and Mother saw them from Brady’s window. The cheers and applause they got down town, I suppose. There was not much of it up here–there was too much crying. Even policemen were in tears. What a dreadful collapse the “Grand Army” of the Potomac suffered. I don’t think the North needed such a lesson! Perhaps they did–perhaps the people have felt as if they could march down to Richmond whenever they chose. . . . Scott sent an inefficient general (known as a perfect windbag among brother officers) without commissariat, without organization, without proper regimental officers, against what he knew to be a fortified camp of a hundred thousand men. The one great blunder was that the battle was fought at all. All other minor blunders–and how many there were! are included in this. . . .
Jefferson Davis is free now to do what he pleases–flushed with success. Everyone says this battle has been as good to him as an increase of a hundred thousand fighting men. . . . He will perhaps attack Washington itself. The papers speak of the danger of this–and we all feel that the city is in greater peril than it was in those April days. Under such circumstances we do not quite relish your idea of going to Alexandria. You would be cut off at once, in that town, from communication or escape. One thought that checked Mother’s desire to go immediately to Washington last Monday was the idea that on reaching there she might find that women and children had been ordered to leave–for fear of an attack from Beauregard. That order may come yet. My dear sisters, I do not want to write anything depressing, but you must make up your minds after this disaster for a long war, an impoverished country, many reverses. So far, you have had but one thought –that of immediate success. General Scott’s plan of closing in on the rebels in Virginia and crushing them as in his fingers, is blown to the winds. We are to have a protracted and somewhat equal struggle, but the North is in earnest; its fault has been over-eagerness. Men there always have been enough of,–let them have proper officers; and as to money, Congress ought to be ashamed to haggle about direct taxation but pass the bill at once and provide ways and means. . . . I am very glad the boxes had all arrived safely. Next day you would get Aunt Emily’s two barrels, and Uncle Edward’s $250 in money. Buy whatever you see is needed or the surgeons and nurses want. Don’t wait for red tape. If it is mattresses, cots, pillows, spirit lamps, food, sheeting, flannel, etc. to wrap wounded men in, or what not. You can have plenty of money, and it could not be better spent than in fitting up a hospital even if that is government work. Carry wanted me to send you some money for her, but I told her I would wait and see whether you could buy the things you needed in Washington, or whether it had better be spent here. Please let me know. We shall have enough more things to fill a barrel early next week. Shall we put in the bandage roller, or are the hospital surgeons provided? I am sorry that Mrs. Leavitt did not send you a list of the contents of her boxes. . . .
Don’t save up things if you see them needed. It is easy to buy more slippers and mosquito net here, and it does not cost us any time or a stitch of effort to send more clothing. The Society has plenty on hand. Mrs. Parker jumped up with pleasure when we sent round the other day to see if she could let us have a few things for the trunk, and granted enough, as you saw, to fill two boxes and over. She was delighted at the idea of their being distributed where she could hear about it, and I must manage to put some scraps of your accounts together and tell her what you say. There is a fresh lot of handkerchiefs under way. Maria Gilman hemmed them on her machine.