His duties and pleasures, did not, however, alienate him from the sweetheart of his boyhood, for he kept up as frequent and interesting a correspondence with Miss Ewing as he had done at West Point. In the summer of 1863 he got a leave of absence for three months and spent that time with her at Lancaster. In November of that year he set out to return to Charleston by way of New Orleans. Part of the way he travelled with Henry Stanbery, afterward Attorney General of the United States. At Cincinnati he spent some time with his two brothers, who were employed in the _Gazette_ printing office. He spent a week at St. Louis, visiting the arsenal and Jefferson Barracks, and was much impressed with the future possibilities of the city, which then had only about 40,000 inhabitants. So he returned to Charleston, and there he was a busy student, concerning himself chiefly with observations of the country from a professional point of view. Says Mr. Reid in his "Ohio in the War": "Nothing could more strikingly exhibit the foundations of that wonderful knowledge of the topography and resources of the South which was afterwards to prove so valuable, than this scrap of a letter to Philemon Ewing: 'Every day I feel more and more in need of an atlas, such as your father has at home; and as the knowledge of geography, in its minutest details, is essential to a true military education, the idle time necessarily spent here might be properly devoted to it. I wish, therefore you would procure for me the best geography and atlas (not school) extant.'" Writing from Fort Moultrie he said: "Since my return I have not been running about in the city or the island, as heretofore, but have endeavored to interest myself in Blackstone. I have read all four volumes, Starkie on 'Evidence,' and other books, semi-legal and semi-historical, and would be obliged if you would give me a list of such books as you were required to read, not including your local or State law. I intend to read the second and third volumes of 'Blackstone' again; also 'Kent's Commentaries,' which seem, as far as I am capable of judging, to be the basis of the common law practice. This course of study I have adopted from feeling the want of it in the duties to which I was lately assigned.... I have no idea of making the law a profession; but as an officer of the army, it is my duty and interest to be prepared for any situation that fortune or luck may offer. It is for this alone that I prepare and not for professional practice." Soon after getting back to Charleston he was assigned to duty in the upper part of Georgia and Alabama, and on this errand he travelled over the region in which, many years later, he conducted one of his greatest campaigns. Thus he acquired knowledge which was afterward of incalculable value to him and to the National Government.