Iowa brought the thought of Dan Bale. The letter from Elmer Quagger came, and it seemed that every man in the company knew what that letter told about the captain’s wife. He saw that a third corporal was bucked and gagged that day, for stealing, and he knew that the man would not have been bucked and gagged on any other day. Mrs. Captain Fanning has betrayed … and night came upon Thoroughfare Gap with rainy haze, like a rubber blanket laid over the short clover.

They were there until the 25th, and Fanning could follow his letter all the way north: see Chaplain Kraal posting it in Baltimore, see it laying in a mail pouch, see the pouch lifted about and transferred at the Junction, and handled by many people as it traveled … The corps packed up and began to move. Owen’s brigade existed no longer, as such. The new commander’s name was Webb: a New Yorker. He was said to be a smart enough soldier … Scrawny mobs of the enemy hung worrying on the heels of the advance, and there were a few casualties and a few wagons were lost. The Potomac looked browner than Ty had ever seen it, weak coffee talking among its rocks, and people called the place Edwards’ Ferry. The despot’s heel is on thy shore, Maryland, my Maryland. Cherries were ripe, and wheat in the shock.

Poolesville, Barnesville, Monocacy Junction. The first time he ever called upon her, she played the piano for him. He stood and looked at the dull polish on his shoes, but he did remember to turn the music each time she hesitated and a sheet needed turning. She wanted to know whether he had ever heard Jenny Lind; no, he said, he didn’t know much about songs or singers. You should know, she declared. You should. It looks extremely difficult, Miss Lorrence. Oh, not at all, Mr. Fanning. Her dress was cut quite low; he thought of the things his friends talked about, at college. He had never done it, not in all his life. He had had dreams … Her tea-rose silk, heavy and gathered, puffed out above its tight belt. Not at all difficult. Well, he said, I would be a willing pupil. They laughed. Her aunt came to serve the tea. Japanese cups—her father had bought them in Paris. Yes, she had been to Paris, too. Then her aunt said something about President Buchanan, and Tyler talked, somewhat violently, about the President. The women sat and listened to him. That was in September of 1860, and he was twenty years old.