We hear that McDowell is somewhere
between you and Fredericksburg. Just keep him there, will you? We'd
rather not have him up here just yet. Give my love to all my
cousins. Will write _from the other side of the water_.

Yours as ever,

PETER FRANCISCO.

P. S. Of course this is not official, but the impression is strong
in the army that the defensive has been dropped and that the geese
in the other Capitol ought to be cackling if they are not.

Jarrow drew the whole together. "I thought the three would be enough,
sir. I never like to overdo."

"You have the correct idea, Jarrow. Bring the boy in, Gold. I want the
bag captured early to-morrow."

On May the twenty-eighth, fifteen thousand in all, Winder still in
advance, they moved by Summit Point toward Harper's Ferry, thirty miles
away. Ewell on Rifle led the main column, Jackson and Little Sorrel
marched to-day with the rear, Ashby on the black stallion went far
ahead with his cavalry. The army moved with vigour, in high spirits and
through fine weather, a bright, cool day with round white clouds in an
intense blue sky. When halts were made and the generals rode by the
resting troops they were loudly cheered. The men were talkative; they
indulged in laughter and lifted voice in song. Speculation ran to and
fro, but she wore no anxious mien. The army felt a calm confidence, a
happy-go-lucky mood. It had come into a childlike trust in its
commanding general, and that made all the difference in the world.
"Where are we going? Into Maryland? Don't know and don't care! Old Jack
knows. _I_ think we're going to Washington--Always did want to see it. I
think so, too. Going to take its attention off Richmond, as the Irishman
said when he walked away with the widow at the wake. Look at that
buzzard up there against that cloud! Kingbird's after him! Right at his
eyes!--Say, boys, look at that fight!"

In the afternoon the Stonewall came to Charlestown, eight miles from
Harper's Ferry. Here they found, strongly posted in a wood, fifteen
hundred Federals with two guns, sent from Harper's Ferry by Saxton. A
courier went back to Ewell. Winder, without waiting for reinforcements,
attacked. The fight lasted twenty minutes, when the Federal line broke,
retreating in considerable disorder. The Stonewall, pressing after, came
into view, two miles from the Potomac, of the enemy'