t in the cars on the way thither. Quite proud we felt, you may be sure, as we tramped up Pennsylvania Avenue, with our new silk flags flying, the fifes playing "Dixie," and we ten little dru

een them and us. They, I observed, had no knapsacks; a gum-blanket, twisted into a roll, and slung carelessly over the shoulder, was all the luggage they carried. Dark, swarthy, sinewy men they were, with torn shoes and faded uniforms, but wit

ot; there was no water; my knapsack weighed a ton. So that when, after marching some seven miles, our orders were countermanded, and we faced about to return to the city again, I thought it impossible I ever should reach it. My feet moved mechanically, everything along the road was in a

hich, for days, all consciousness left me, and all was blank before me, save only that, in misty intervals, I saw the kind faces and heard the sub

having been assigned to duty at "Soldiers' Home," the President's summer residence. Although it was but a distance of three miles or thereabouts, and although I started out in search of "Soldiers' Home" at noon, so conflicting were the directions given me by the various persons of whom I asked the road, that it was nightfall before I r

Who goe

fri

nd, and give t

, peering through the

iend. You'd better give the cou

true Zouave style, with his bayonet

untersign; and if you're going to kill me, why, don't stand there crouching like a cat ready to

call up the corporal, and he may kill you,-y

he guard, post

high, now deep and low: "Corporal of the guard, post nu

e guard on a full trot, with his gun a

what'

g to break

re i

, beside t

ll be shot for a spy to-morr

Mr. Corporal

well as I knew them; but they were bent on having a little fun at my expense, and the corporal had marc

number three!" "Corporal of t

poral trotte

in the misch

rying to break my

grand execution in the morning! The more the

trying to climb over the gate there, and he wouldn't stop nor give the counter

there he was,-a

speak to the colonel about this, and you shall h

off to headquarters, where, the 'possum being thrown down on the ground,

made for him there; and that henceforth and hereafter he should beat reveille at d

the morning, although it was duly ordained that the 'poss

loved his soldiers as his own children, did not like being guarded. Often did I see him enter his carriage before the hour appointed for his morning departure for the White House, and drive away in haste, as if to escape from the irksome escort of a dozen cavalry-men, whose duty it was to guard his carriage between our camp and the city.

for those September days of 1862 were the dark, perhaps the darkest, days of the war. Many a mark of favor and kindness did we receive from the President's family. Delicacies, such as we were strangers to then, and would be

rapped in great-coats and sound asleep in the tents, I f

d beat the long roll; we're go

ny street, and beat the loud alarm, which, waking the echoes, brought the boys

up, fe

any D!" shoute

the captain; "we're goin

midnight, there was some lively scrambling fo

, you've got

e's m

amp, you've g

me to look after shoes now.

whole line through the woods was made among tangled bushes and briers, and through marshes, until, as the first early streaks of dawn were shooting up in the eastern sky, our orders were countermanded,

adly encounter with the enemy, so alarmed did he become that he at once fell to-praying! Out of consideration for his years and piety, the captain had permitted him to remain behind as a guard for the camp in our absence, in which capacity he did excellent service, excel