2^d R.I. Vols. Fairfax C.H. Va.

June 22^d 1863.

 

Dear Col.

            Your last letter fairly stunned me with astonishment. If you try to get out of the Colonelcy & to get Lt Henry in everyone will say you felt yourself incompetent & all that sort of thing, for they wouldn't understand the disinterestedness of your motives as I & your other friends would. My advice would be, resign for ill health & then get Henry in, for recommendations from Gillmore & Barry would influence Smith to appoint, or else be consolidated out for then nobody can cast slurs on you & stick it out till the time comes for you to go. But beware I pray you as your friend of doing anything that would be / injurious to your reputation for your military reputation will help you much hereafter & you are still a young man & your friends hope much for you. It is all moonshine for you to talk of your willingness to be my Lt Col or Adj^t for you know as well as I do that that would ruin your reputation. Now my advice to you, Col, is just this if you honestly desire to get out of the 3^d either for yourself own or the Reg^t's sake, do not resign except for sickness, for you have already once resigned there. If consolidation takes you out, that is not your choice & no one can blame you, but on the other hand you would be provided for as a point of honor & I should advise you taking an Infantry Reg^t then if you could get it. But I insist upon it that you are worrying & low spir- / ited about your Reg^t. It stands well & you stand well at home. I thank you for your kind expressions towards me & your compliments. Notwithstanding what the Reg^t did over the river & any personal reputation I may have gained out of it, & the R.I. Legislature have sent the Reg^t a note of thanks in which the Col's name figures very conspicuously & flatteringly, I tell you Col I had rather be your Lt Col even in a Heavy Art^y Reg^t which by the way I detest as being neither one thing nor the other than be Col of this Reg^t. I never had as pleasant a time in military as I did while under you as Col. You & Brayton are the only real military friends I ever had. To be sure I am on excellent terms with my present Field, but it is not as we were. Much as I am obliged to you for the manner in / which you helped to bring me out & shove me up, I will frankly state that though I suppose my reputation stands higher now than before I took this Reg^t I should have been happier with you as second in the 3^d than as first in the 2^d; though as the 3^d is organized I would rather be Col of the 2^d than of the 3^d for I like Infantry better than a mongrel Army. My sphere would be a new Reg^t where I could form for myself as the 11^th but here my usefulness is much paralysed for I am borne along in a current of Potomac Army ways & abuses which it is impossible to break loose from as every Reg^t in the Brigade & whole Army / pretty much drift in & particularly as a Regular commanded here before me, & I came from outside I get disgusted indeed at things which it is hard indeed for me to help, nay impossible. We are all the victims of a great scare. Stuart's Cavalry is cutting into Pennsylvania & Maryland: nobody knows where Lee's main force is. Our Army has abandoned the line of the Rappahannock & our troops are strung all along from here up through Virginia. Meanwhile Government is accepting six months Reg^ts while drafted troops for the war are withheld & we shall be in no sort of shape to make any headway this summer in putting down this thing & I am free to say / that unlike you I am considerably exercised about things in general for I think matters are being managed miserably. How does Brayton like black troops to campaign with? What is the general opinion now as to black soldiers South?

 

We have had some hard campaigning, some hard marching &c. I had no idea when we came here last Thursday that we should stay so long, indeed we have been packed up once to move but the order was countermanded. Remember me to all my friends. By the way what was Col Fraser dismissed for? We are about 1½ miles from the Battle Field of Chantilly where Kearney & Stevens were killed.

                                                                                   

Truly yours

 H Rogers Jun

 

P.S. I have just given your extraordinary epistle another perusal & every time I read it I am more & more nonplussed. I always thought the position of Chief of Art^y an undesirable one, but Col Tompkins & several of his Capts of our 1^st R.I.L.A. are Chiefs of Art^y in different Corps. Of course Col, I will do anything in my power to carry out any wish of yours, but I should hate to do anything in assisting you to cast a slur on your good name & I think this would. This reminds me of Bucklin's endorsing Tisdale's resignation papers. I believe you can fill the place or learn to at least. If you are in a bad box as Chief of Art^y & the "d___d volunteer" is the feeling I should get out of it quietly. Now I think that such cattle as Hunter et id omne genus are not worth thinking about. I think / you are over sensitive in this matter & that you let a fancy trouble you. I am convinced that if I was one of your officers now I should fight your determination to the end. You sacrificed your position in the 11^th for your present position & now if you sacrifice this you will be all afloat, though if you are like me & I think you are you would care but blamed little about military position & would be out of it were it not a duty to a distressed country. I do not like the Army & I like it less & less daily. God hasten the day when I can return safely to my wife, home & happiness. No position in the Regulars could tempt me for a second.                                                                     

H R Jun.

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