September 12th.–The day passed quietly, in spite of rumours of another battle; the band played in the President’s garden, and citizens and citizenesses strolled about the grounds as if Secession had been annihilated. The President made a fitful appearance, in a grey shooting suit, with a number of despatches in his hand, and walked off towards the State Department quite unnoticed by the crowd. I am sure not half a dozen persons saluted him–not one of the men I saw even touched his hat. General Bell went round the works with McClellan, and expressed his opinion that it would be impossible to fight a great battle in the country which lay between the two armies–in fact, as he said, “a general could no more handle his troops among the woods, than he could regulate the movements of rabbits in a cover. You ought just to make a proposition to Beauregard to come out on some plain and fight the battle fairly out where you can see each other.”
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posted on the 13th as there were two entries dated the 11th, with the second one posted on the 12th.