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November 21, 1861 - Rufus R. Dawes to ?

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CAMP ON ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, NOVEMBER 21st, 1861.

Last Sunday I attended Dr. Gurley's church in Washington City. I went there to see President Lincoln. I think many others of the worshipers went there for the same purpose. Mr. Lincoln is very tall and very homely, but no one can look at him without being impressed with the serious earnestness of his face. On Tuesday we marched out to Bailey's Cross Roads to take part in the grand review. I must not write about what the papers are so full of. You know that it was the largest review of troops ever had in America, that sixty thousand infantry, nine thousand cavalry and one hundred and thirty pieces of artillery passed in review before McClellan, that the regiments marched by 'battalions en masse,' and that it took from 11 o'clock A. M. until 4 P. M. to pass the reviewing officer, and that the President, the members of the Cabinet, and all the celebrities, foreign and domestic, were present. But perhaps you have not seen that General McClellan was so overcome by the lofty pomposity of drum major William Whaley of this regiment, that he took off his hat when Whaley passed. But, sad to relate, Whaley was so overcome by this recognition, which took place while he was indulging in a top loftical gyration of his baton, that he dropped the baton. From the topmost height of glory he was plunged into the deepest gulf of despair. This drum major of ours we regard with pride and affection as the finest adornment of the regiment. He can hold his head higher, and whirl his baton faster than any other drum major in the Army of the Potomac. It is enough to make one sad, to see the stately Whaley leading that execrable brass band on dress parade, eternally playing the Village Quickstep, but when his own drum corps is behind him, 'Richard is himself again,' and he snuffs the air and spurns the ground like a war horse.

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