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you and makes you very uncomfortable. . . . In due season we got to the 5th Corps Headquarters, near the Rappahannock, which is a very narrow affair at this point, and not over four feet deep on the shallowest fords.
General Sykes looks a little like the photograph of General Lyon and has a very thick head of hair, which stands up like Traddles's. He is a mild, steady man, and very polite, like all the officers I have seen down here.
Indeed, a more courteous set of men it would be hard to find.
I have yet to meet a single gruffy one.
They are of all sorts, some well educated, others highly Bowery, but all entirely civil. . . .
The astute Sykes talked some time with the Chief, and then we rode to the Headquarters of General Newton, who commands the 1st Corps, hard by. This chieftain had a very gorgeous tent, erected for the express accommodation of Mrs. Newton, who, however, was soon driven forth by the general order excluding all ladies from the lines; and the tent was all that remained to remind one of her presence.
General Newton also has a thick head of hair, and is a tall and finely built man and “light complected.”
He was in great glee over a tete-de-pont he had erected, and hoped to decoy some unfortunate Rebels to within range of it. He produced a huge variety of liquids which I had to refuse.
The drinks I have refused will be a burden on my conscience in time to come.
They come from all sides and in great variety, even champagne! . . .
Headquarters, Army of Potomac September 9, 1863
In my last I forwarded a landscape with Headquarters of the 3d Corps in the verdant background.
In this, I will describe the Review, at which, as the Gauls say, “I assisted.” . . . Everybody got himself up in all available 