The Log of the Empire State

ay from daylight to midnight, from one point to another, seems, to one who has not tried it, no great undertaking. Thirty miles! It is but an hour's ride in the cars. Nor can the single pedest

and what to throw away, we soon learned to be guided by the soldiers' proverb that "what weighs an ounce in the morning weighs a pound at night." Then, too, the soldier is not master of his own movements, as is the solitary pedestrian; for he cannot pick his way, nor husband his strength by resting when and where he may choose. He marches generally "four abreast," sometimes at double-quick, when the rear

le the issue of which hangs trembling in the balance. Yet this was what they came pretty near doing with us,

he Pommel of his Saddle

unbroken roll of the musketry, and the shouts and yells of the lines charging each other a quarter of a mile to our front. But when I attempt to call up the incidents that happened by the way, I am utterly at a loss. My memory has retained nothing but a confused mass of images: here a farmhouse, there a mill; a company of stragglers driven on by the guard; a surgeon writing upon the pommel of his saddle an order for an ambulance

ng, in a dull haze that hangs over the thickly-wooded horizon. We are nearing the ford where we are to cross the Rappahannock.

two great armies are at each other's throat, and the battle is raging

-on

reat battle that is raging ahead: long lines of ambulances filled with wounded; yonder a poor fellow with a bandaged head sitting by a spring; and a few steps away another, his agonies now over; here, two men, one with his arm in a sling supporting the oth

hard day's march; you will now

ent that has been making coffee by the roadside, and has just moved off, and we think them a godsend, as the order is given to "Stack arms!" But before we have time even to unsling knapsa

were millions of them! And every one whistling, as fast as it could, "Who-hoo-hoo! Who-hoo-hoo! Who-hoo-hoo!" Had they been vultures or turkey-buzzards,-vast flocks of which followed the army wherever we went, almost darkening the sky at times, and always suggesting unpleasant refl

borne to our ears at every additional step the deepening growl of the cannon ahead. As the moon mounts higher, and we adv

ck, until we are on the ou

g through the tall

ad at wil

quicker pulse. A well-known voice calls me down the line, and Andy whispers a few hurried words into my ear, while he grasps my hand hard. But we are off at a quick step. A sharp turn to the

position down this road on the right. Follow me!" The staff-officer leads us half a

us, and lay under a great oak-tree, too weak to walk, my head nearly splitting with the noise of a battery of steel cannon in position fifty yards to the left of me. That battery's beautiful but

lle,-a sergeant of my company came back to where we were, with orders for m

n or other, we've got to get out of this at once under cover of night, and lieutenant can't stand the march. So you will go for an ambulance. You'll find the ambulance-park about two miles from here. You'll take thro

I myself was probably as sick as the lieutenant, and felt positive that the troops would h

ording a stream, the corduroy bridge of which was all afloat, and walking ra

once, and can send an ambulance for no ma

e wrong point, missed the path, and quite lost my way! What was to be done? If I should spend much time where I was, I was certain to be left behind, for I felt sure that the troops were moving off;

g the bushes to the left. By and by I fixed my eye on a certain bright camp-fire, and determined to make for it at al

wet and sleepy, and did not at all relish the prospect of a night-march through the woods in a drenching rain. So, putting on the only remaining dry shirt I

d "Halloo there, you chaps! Better be digging out of this! We're th

fter the cavalry-man, until a double-quick of two miles brought u