1862 June 16 Front Royal Va.

Front Royal Va

June 16 1862

Dear Mother

You must not be surprised at my silence

for since the battle & retreat I have been terribly busy &

most of the time away on some special service.  I

regret not being able to send the deed before but circumstances

& location prevented.  I went to Balto to have it properly

signed reached there at 11 A.M.  woke up a Commissioner

& left at 4 am  He agreed to forward it to the Judge

but instead sent it to me & I hurried it on in the 

slow mail.  Col. Gordon has finally got his promotion & is

now Genl.  I do not think he will come back here & I

am anxiously waiting to hear from him.  He has given

me an appointment on his staff & I am to take his

& my things on as soon as I hear from him. You had

best not write again till I send you my address which

may be a new one.  He is working to get me my

appointment & I wish some of my friends could write to

get the politicians to put the matter thro' the Senate

ie Captain & Assist. Quartermaster.  I deserve it beyond

doubt being the ranking of Lt. In the Army probably with

11 mos. service in that duty. I shall go to W. very as

soon as I hear from Genl. G. & probably come home for a

few days.  There is nothing new since our retreat I

will write about as soon as I have time.

We have no force here to speak of & you may expect

any day to hear of our being driven out again

if luckily we are not taken prisoners.  The war is going

to be a long one.  McClellan I think entre nous will

be defeated or virtually so at Richmond.  I have the

greatest confidence in him but  he has too few men

by far  Stanton is his enemy which is enough.

Beauregard is there with a large force from Corinth

We shall have to resort to conscription & the sooner it

is done the better.  The South undoubtedly have more

men in the field than we have & are fighting at home.

It is all well enough for men at home to talk & boast

subjugation &c &c Sounds well but we have got no

mean for reckless & daring & growing more & more 

desperate they will yet show us that we must strain

every chord & muscle to defeat them.  I will write

again about the dark feautures  of our Retreat thro'

the streets of Winchester Women firing from the

window &c it was pretty hard It was a dire

necessity but a true one to shoot then in their

windows as they killed our wearied & defeated men

dragging their bodies & equipments through heat & 

dust. Still on our return the imbecile doubly

careful (?) politician. Banks allowed no just

retribution to be taken.  The city still stands a

monument of Southern cruelty & Northern weakness

a refuge for an other bloody deeds which may happen

any day.  But I must close.  How is Lizzie give lots

of love to her & yourself  from Morton

Lt. Marcus Morton Hawes

Asst. Quartermast to Genl. Geo. Henry Gordon

MSS 11372