George A. McCall to S. WILLIAMS, Assistant .Adjutant-General, August 6, 1861
Maj. S. WILLIAMS, Assistant .Adjutant-General :
MAJOR: I made this morning a reconnaissance of the country reported last evening to be oceupied by the enemy, by an officer I had sent to examine the country in front of the point at which my pickets communieate with those of Colonel Smith, of the Vermont regiment. I discovered that what he had supposed to be camps of the insurgents proved to be, under the scrutiny of the glass, only clusters of whitewashed
houses, negro cabins, and fences on the opposite side of the Potomae.
I afterwards prosecuted the examination of both banks of the river as far as the head of the aqueduct, but discovered no signs of the pres.
ence of the enemy on that section of the river lands. I wastold by a. man who lives about 5 miles from this camp that he had heard the drum the night before on the hills opposite. No camp was visible.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.
AUGUST 7, 1861—6.45 a. m.
P. S.—I received at 3 a. m. a dispatch from Colonel [W. F.] Smith,
cautious about an attack to-night." My brigade was immediately under
arms and is still in order of battle, but I have no intelligence of the
advance of the enemy yet.