The Log of the Empire State

pleasant, and I'd like to have you for company, for time hangs rather heavy on

?sar;" but to make up for the deficiency, particularly of a grammar, I had written out the declensions of the nouns and the conjugations of the verbs on odd scraps of paper,

ong first-rate; but we must get p

at four o'clock, I set out, in company with a body of some several hundred men of the regiment. We were to

reserve was established, the captain in command making his headquarters in the once beautiful grounds of the mansion, long since deserted and left empty by its former occupants. The place had a very distressing air of neglect. The beautiful lawn in front, where merry children had no doubt played and romped in years gone by, was overgrown with weeds. The large and commodious porch, where

outspreading branches of the great elms on the lawn in front of the house, and building our fires back of a hill in the

isting in the supposed case of one hundred each. One of these companies of a hundred goes into a sort of camp about a half mile from the picket-line,-usually in a woods or near by a spring, if one can be found, or in some pleasant ravine among the hills,-and the men have nothing to do but m

under the charge of a non-commissioned officer,-a sergeant or corporal,-and must stand guard in succession, two hours on and four off, day and night, for the first twenty-four hours, at the end of which time the reserve one hundred in the rear march up and relieve the whole advance picket-post, which then goes to the rear, throws off its accoutrements, stacks its arms, and sleeps till it can sleep

ef, and stood guard from eight to ten in the morning, two to f

wn, telling stories, singing catches of songs, or discussing the probabilit

ide and shooting-iron. We have a ni

and I paced on our adjoining beats, each of us having to walk about a hundred yards, w

a picket silently pacing his beat on the south side of the river, as I was pacing mine on the north, with bayonet flashing in the patches of moonlight as he passed up and down. I fell to wondering, as I watched him, what sort of man he was? Young or old? Had he children at home, may be, in the far-off South? Or a father and mother? Did he wish this cruel war was over? In the next fight may be he'd be

nk! We can

ight, Johnny

s, lo

e pickets on the other side of the river as necessary, an

who has charge of our relief. "I ain't a-going to sleep, but I'm tired. Every time

nly, se

ll not be broken by me, unless the "Grand Rounds" come along, for whom I must keep a sharp lookout, lest they catch you napping and give you a pretty court-martial! But Grand Rounds or no, you shall

geant! Get up-

Who goe

rand R

the Grand Rounds, and

n the shadow, and whispers in my ear, "Lafayette," when t

e question. At two o'clock in the morning the second relief goes out again, down through the patch of meadow, wet with the heavy dew, and along down the river t

hes. Springing forward at once by a common impulse, we get behind

'll watch down; and if you see him trying to handl

rous Part

of his tree too well to walk his beat any more, for we wait impatiently for a lon

, Joh

n't shoot,

o make such an offer, isn't i

ld gun went of

ely yarn o' y

n honest fa

way, you will oblige us chaps over here by holding the muzzle down toward

from behind his tree into the bright moonligh

gun went off by accident, or was t

n might have gone off by accident. There's no telli

ile we pace ours as leisurely as he, but, with a wholesome regard for guns that go off so easily of themselves, we have a decided prefe

f the great conflict at all. Except at times immediately before or after a battle, or when there was some specially exciting reason for mutual defiance, the pickets were generally on friendly terms, conversed freely about the news of the day

bivouac under the elms on the lawn, and sat down the

a picket being shot? It was something about 'All quiet along the Po

benefit. We'll just imagine ourselves back in the dear old Academy again, and

ALONG TH

NIG

ong the Potom

and then, a

walks on his

an hid in t

private or tw

t in the news

r lost-only o

all alone, th

long the Pot

iers lie peace

the rays of the

of the watch-fi

igh of the ge

est-leaves soft

bove, with their

for the army

sound of the lon

rom the rock t

he two, in the

the cot on t

s slack-his fac

e with memo

prayer for the

her-may Heave

fountain, the b

p is laggin

s, through the br

des of the for

night-wind that r

nlight so wond

a rifle-'Ha!

lood is ebbing

long the Pot

e the rush o

the dew on the

's off dut