Friday.
My dear Stevens,—The inclosed are the result of a search through the libraries of the War and Eng’r Dep’ts. I hardly feel satisfied that they are precisely what you need.
If they do not suit you, inform me of it, and I will gladly renew the research.
I had another conversation with the general this morning about the sappers. It’s of no use whatever,—his mind is made up to detail fifty men on the Coast Survey. He says the duty I propose for them in Texas is not legitimate and belongs not to them. Amen! I have said my say. I’ve done what I could. Some one of more influence than I possess must convince him,—my words are idle breath and of no avail.
Truly your friend,
George B. McClellan.
It should be remembered that he was undertaking this great task of reorganizing the army, expending so much thought, labor, and time upon it, in addition to the incessant labors of the Coast Survey and the cares of the fortifications in Maine. It was his lofty and patriotic ideals, his noble ambition to do his duty by his profession and his country, that spurred him on, and his untiring energy and power of concentration that enabled him to throw off work so rapidly and effectively. His great ambition was to accomplish results, and he was careless and indifferent as to claiming credit for himself, or pushing himself in any way.
Notwithstanding all these engrossing labors, he responded as promptly and generously as ever to the personal calls of his friends and others. He writes and interviews the War Department and Generals Scott and Totten in behalf of another brevet for Captain G.W. Smith, aids McClellan in regard to the engineer company, obtains information for H.L. Smith, has the accounts of Sergeant Lathrop, of the engineer company, passed, and is ever ready to lend a helping hand to any deserving man or cause.
Early in 1851 Major Stevens moved to Mrs. Janney’s, an excellent and well-known boarding-house on Eighth Street, next the Avenue. Here lived several members of Congress and government officials, and also the Turkish ambassador, a grave, quiet man in a dark red fez, with whom Major Stevens occasionally played checkers in the evening. At this establishment breakfast was served at eight, dinner at four, with a lunch at noon, and at nine in the evening tea and thin sandwiches were handed around in the parlor.
In June Major Stevens carried his family to Newport for the summer, where leaving them, he visited Bucksport to look after the works at Fort Knox, which still remained under his charge. He hastened back to Washington before the month was out. Passing through New York, he again sat to Professor Fowler for his “phrenological character,” but this time was not accused of being a poet. Whether informed by the bumps or other means, the phrenologist seems to have drawn his characteristics pretty accurately, with some glaring exceptions.
Desirous of keeping house, Major Stevens now leased a roomy brick house, one in a block of two, on the west side of Third Street, and only a block north of the Avenue. This house had a large garden fronting on the street, and in the rear of it was a stable opening on an alley behind. Having obtained a position on the Coast Survey for his cousin, George Watson Stevens, a son of uncle William, a young man of nineteen, Major Stevens invited the youth to become a member of his family.