Letter from William Hardy to his wife, Sallie Hardy; 17 October 1861

              Camp near Centreville 
Wednesday, 17th October 1861

My Dear Sallie,

I received your letter of the 9th just this evening and was glad indeed to hear from you and especially that you were in such good health. I would tonight give anything in the world to see you. I have written you so often of expecting to get into an engagement that I am almost constrained not to mention it any more, but we will be compelled to fight this week, perhaps tomorrow or back square down. We have retreated to this point, as I wrote you yesterday, and the Yankees are advancing in large force from two directions. They are now at Fairfax Court House, a beautiful little village. We passed through it day before yesterday evening, and it was indeed a heart rending scene. I could scarce keep from crying when I saw so many of the fair and lovely daughters of the Old Dominion in tears. Woman's tears to me are more powerful than the sword or cannon. 

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