Headquarters 3rd Brigade,
McCall’s Division
Camp Pierpont, Feb. 27, 1862
Dear Parents:-
Again I seat myself for the purpose of addressing you. I received Pa’s note of the 19th which at least had the merit of being brief (?).
The bustle and confusion preparatory to making a move has at last begun. Last night Gen. McClellan gave orders to all the Army of the Potomac to prepare for a march and have three days’ cooked rations in their haversacks. Only four wagons are allowed to a regiment and they are for taking extra rations and ammunition. Officers are to take nothing with them but a valise or carpet bag. The tents are not to be taken along now. It commenced to rain last night which may delay the move a little, but this morning it is clear and the coast wind is quite high from the north-west.
The time for another struggle is at hand. Capt. Ord told me this morning that Banks had crossed the upper Potomac. This has not been published in the papers but he told me he had it from a reliable source. He, Banks, crossed day before yesterday by means of pontoon bridges.
I would not be surprised if we would be in Richmond before two weeks, but we will surely take Manassas this time.
The Artillery of our Division went to the Arsenal in the city yesterday and exchanged their guns for cannon of a better quality. There are now four Batteries, four and six guns each, with our Division, one Battery of Regulars.
The Army of the Potomac is about thirty miles in length now, long enough to encircle Manassas like the folds of a might[y] boa and crush the life out of the rebellion in this part of the “Old Dominion.”[1]
It seems that the Confederates went through the farce of inaugurating Jeff Davis as President of the C. S. A. on the 22nd. We received his inaugural address on the 25th. It is a most audacious document. You may not see it so I will send it to you if I do not forget it. The mail has already gone this morning so I can not send this to-day.
February 28th—Nothing further of importance. It is said that Banks had a skirmish with the rebels near Winchester. Reinforcements of 12,000 troops started from Washington yesterday to assist Banks.
The newspapers publish nothing now concerning the movements of the army. I will close for the present. Yours affectionately,
J. D. CHADWICK
Next posting: March 12, 2012
Jonathan E. Helmreich
College Historian
Allegheny College
Meadville, PA 16335
[1] Chadwick’s language here most likely is not accidental. General in Chief Winfield Scott favored a limited war that would quell the insurrection but not suppress the hoped-for loyalty to union that might still reside within the South. Rather than a frontal assault, he favored a slow envelopment of the region by a naval blockade and military pressure along the Mississippi River. This plan for “squeezing” and “suffocating” the South was mocked by editorial writers as “The Anaconda Plan.” Scott was replaced as general in chief by McClellan on November 1, 1861.