three
o'clock
They have just sent the Mackerel Brigade a case of umbrellas , and we expect a gross of hair-pins by the next train . Yours , meditatively , ORPHEUS C. KERR . WASHINGTON , D.C. , September 30th , 1861 . Another week has fled swiftly by , my boy , on those wings which poets and other long-haired creatures suppose to be eternally flapping through the imaginary atmosphere of time ; yet the high old battle so long expected has not got any further than `` heavy firing near the Chain Bridge , '' which takes place every afternoon punctually at three o'clock -- just in time for the evening papers . I have been thinking , my boy , that if this heavy firing in the vicinity of Chain Bridge lasts a few years longer , it will finally become a nuisance to the First Families living in that vicinity . But sometimes what is thought to be heavy firing is not that exactly ; the other day , a series of loud explosions were heard on Arlington Heights , and twenty-four reporters immediately telegraphed to twenty-four papers that five hundred thousand rebels had attacked our lines with two thousand rifled cannon , and had been repulsed with a loss of fourteen thousand killed . Federal loss -- one killed , and two committed suicide .