Head Quarters 1^st Div 11^th Army Corps

Stafford Court House Jany 16^th 1863

 

              No letter from you again tonight dear wife, although the mail seems to come as usual. Take care that I do not have good cause to return some of your complaints against me. As yet however I will not do so, for I have no doubt that you have written regularly, and only the mails are at fault. I am very sorry not to have received a letter tonight as there is some prospect of our moving. We are under what is called marching orders, and may therefore be required to move at any moment. We have been ordered to cook three days rations during today, and this means be ready to march. Night has however come and as yet no orders to move have been received. I have received no intimation as to our destination and therefore can / give you no information. We may again move forward to Falmouth, or on the flank to Warrenton. There is a camp rumor that Gen^l Burnside will with a portion of his troops now at Falmouth make a reconnaissance in force over the river at some point, in order to ascertain whether the enemy still occupy the hills in the rear of Fredericksburg in force as formerly, or whether they have fallen back with their main force leaving only a few troops to hold our army in check as long as possible. If the latter should be the case I suppose Burnside would advance the larger portion of his army across the river at once. As you know Sigels grand division is the reserve and therefore we will probably be kept in the rear until we can be used in a grand battle of the whole army. I cannot see how we can be removed from this / line unless we are replaced by some other troops whose duty it will be to protect the line of communications with Aquia Creek landing, which we now do. Where these troops are to come from I do not know. If this is not done here, then the line must be advanced probably to the Rappahannock, and the enemy kept in check at that point so that no raid can be made upon the railroad to Falmouth or the stores at the landing. There is one other way of protecting our line of communication and that is by driving the rebels back to Richmond so fiercely that they can have no time for anything but self defense. The latter would be the best thing for the country, but the trouble lies in the difficulty carrying it into execution. We have tried driving once and been defeated. Another defeat under similar circumstances would be doubly disastrous. 

 

You have not mentioned the visit of Lieut Morse, and until tonight I supposed that Capt Stuart had called alone to see you. The Lieu^t says that Bessie is the nicest baby he ever saw, and looks very much like me. What do you think of that little wife, is he not a gentleman of excellent taste? How much I wish to be with you tonight, if only to punish you a very little for some of your last letters. Expect it however when I do come, for I will treasure up all my anger against you until I find a good opportunity to pour it out upon your dear little head. Now I ought not to have closed my last sentence in that way; but in truth that is just as I feel and I fear you will always escape punishment in the same way. I hope before long to be able to come to you when I can scold terribly.

 

Love to Ev Tottie Bessie and darling wife with loving good night kisses—M^cLean

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