The ladies of Grand Rapids gave the regiment a dinner in honor of its coming departure, and each soldier was presented with a Testament. In Washington prisoners and wounded are coming in from Fredericksburg, and all surgeons are at the front.
Hospitals are neat and clean.
Arguments are going on in the tents about the government, the president, the abolitionists. He describes the inhabitants of Washington, the contrast between the aristocracy and the lower classes. He comments on Jefferson Davis, treason in Congress, Vallandigham of Ohio and southern sympathizers, Copperheads, General McClellan, General Meade, slavery and the war. He visits the Smithsonian Institution and Georgetown and Lee's mansion. There is lots of sickness and the hospitals are full.