Dear Sydney:

The weather remains oppressively hot here, and my own physical health continues to trouble me. However, I’ll not bore you with details, as reports you’ve already received on the state of the army render my situation no more than the common lot of the soldier.

In answer to your oft repeated question as to when General McDowell proposes to move, the delay in posting this letter should be ample evidence that some such movement is contemplated.

My own experience in the Peninsula, has taught me the importance of restraint where a correspondent’s natural instincts are to secure and transmit vital facts and details as soon as they are known.

The necessity of concealing such operations from the enemy constrain me from offering full particulars at the moment.

Nevertheless, the Tribune cannot err in anticipating some timely word in a dispatch that is to follow. Suffice it to say that three days rations have been issued for Gibbon’s Brigade of Westerners and at least one generals aide has indicated to me that those at headquarters are most anxious to test that brigade’s marching ability in crossing the line of the Rappahannock. Just where they might be going and why has not been revealed to me but with Martin’s departure earlier this summer, and Page’s continued employment in the Peninsula, I expect I shall go along and see.

What have you heard from Page? Rumors are circulating here that wounded are being moved from field hospitals around Harrison’s Landing. Could McClellan have received word from Stanton to return his army to Washington? To join McDowell or Pope? The very idea that we would fully abandon previous gains, so dearly won, sickens me. If true, Lee will not be slow to press his advantage.

I must confess my efforts to induce either L.L. Crounse to leave the Times or Reid to quit the Gazette for the Tribune have not met with success. As I’ve already told you, any reporter who is of any use is loyal to his paper.

Where can those with the necessary devotion be found?

We have just learned as I expect you have by the wire, that the present administration has placed the Confiscation Act into effect forthwith. Those who try and destroy this government ought not to expect such a government to be respecters of either their liberty or property. The continuance of the rebellion carries with it dire consequences for those who seek to maintain it.

I trust all is well at your end and that those at the Tribune are awake to continuing developments. We cannot continue to allow the Herald to steal a march on us as they have so often of late.

I close.

Your Obedient Servant,