Washington, June 3o, 1861.
Our journey on was a hard one. We reached Harrisburg late Friday p. m., and Baltimore at sunrise Saturday. Our passage through Baltimore was unmolested, but was one of the most impressive scenes imaginable. We marched through about 8 o’clock without music and with colors furled, in perfect silence, marching in quick time, only pausing once to rest. The streets were full of people, but we did not get one word of welcome or a single smile except from two little girls in an upper window and half a dozen old darkies standing in doorways. At the head of the column of eight hundred stern-faced men walked the Colonel with his sword sheathed and a hickory stick in his hand. Once a rough fellow in the crowd (a city official) asked tauntingly, “Where’s your music?” and Colonel Davies, gritting his teeth, replied, “In our cartridge boxes!” We were all fully armed and supplied with ammunition, and had received full instructions how to act in case of an attack. Tramp, tramp, tramp, went the Sixteenth through Baltimore in the early morning, and the crowd looked cold and bitter at us, and we looked stern and ready at them. All the road from Harrisburg to Washington is guarded by strong bodies of federal troops, and they are needed.
We got here safely at noon yesterday, and, after a couple of hours’ delay under the shade of the trees of the Capitol grounds, we marched out to “Camp Woolsey,” for so this camp is named in your honor! There are 100,000 soldiers in Washington.
I hope to see you very soon. I don’t know what you will do with yourself here, but, if you want to come, your coming will make me very happy. God bless you!