I tried to
run the guard twice, but had to give it up. I'm going to try again
as soon as there seems any kind of a chance.
"We have moved our camp. Why, heaven knows. If our general
understood what cavalry is for we would have been out long
ago--miles from here--if to do nothing more than make a few maps
which, it seems, our august leaders entirely lack.
"During the night the order came: 'This division will move at four
o'clock in the morning with two days' rations.' All night long we
were at work with axe and hammer, tearing down quarters, packing
stores, and loading our waggons.
"We have an absurd number of waggons. There is an infantry
regiment camped near us that has a train of one hundred and
thirty-six-mule teams to transport its household goods. It's the
77th New York,
"The next morning the sun rose on our army in motion. You say that
I am a scoffer. I didn't scoff at that spectacle. We were on
Flint Hill; and, as far as we could see around us, the whole world
was fairly crawling with troops. Over them a rainbow hung. Later
it rained, as you know.
"I'm wet, Ailsa. The army for the first time is under shelter
tents. The Sibley wall tents and wedge tents are luxuries of the
past for officers and men alike.
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