Harrisonburg June 7^th 1862

 

            I take the first opportunity dear wife to write you since my last letter. I am writing in Gen^l Schencks spring wagon with a haversack for my writing table placed upon my knee. This is also my last sheet of paper carried as you see by its color in my coat pocket. As I wrote you we were hurried off without baggage, tents or any conveniences of any kind, for a pursuit after Jackson which it was supposed would be a short one, but the result has shown that this was a mistake as this is the 12^th day of our pursuit and the enemy is now apparently as far from being caught as ever. Our men have been literally starved upon the march and they are in rags, so that a more unfortunate looking set of men it would be hard to find. Our men I say have been starved on this march, and this is no exaggeration. They have part of the time had nothing but fresh beef, without bread, coffee, sugar, beans, rice or anything else excepting what they could buy from the people of the country. The result is that our / men are sick and entirely unable to make the marches required of them. The consequence has been that our men when unable to march any further have dropped out of the ranks to come up when they can. Many of them have worn out their shoes and it has become a most common sight to see men in ragged united states uniform marching barefooted. But there is still another trouble with this army under Gen^l Fremont which is worse than all the rest. Blenkers division is with us and they I am sorry to say are permitted to rob and desolate the country most completely wherever we go. Gen^l Fremont has been informed of this, and says that he will prevent it, and enforce discipline among them at all hazard when we get through this particular expedition but then it will be too late if it is not indeed too late now. There is not an American officer that I have spoken to upon the subject who does not both feel and say that the army is disgraced by / this vile conduct. Beside the disgrace the result to the rest of us is bad in another manner. Every house is gutted before our portion of the army arrives, and there is nothing for us to buy although we have the money and are willing to pay for provisions from the people which the government have failed to supply as they ought. All this is very hard to bear. Disgrace is purely brought upon us by a set of miserable devils who ought to be shot for their deeds, but instead of that I understand they actually threaten that they will do as they please & will forcibly resist any attempt to prevent them from so doing. We rest here to day. Jackson's rear guard is not far from us and what is to be the next move I do not know. I have written a complaining letter & on my last sheet of paper, but I will try to procure more paper somewhere & do better next time. It is my turn for officer of the day & I must say good bye. Love to Linda & the children and to yourself dear wife warmest kisses. If it is possible for me to do so with

 

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honor I will come to you when your time comes. This is all that I can say now. I must wait until near the time before I make application

N. C. M^cLean

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