The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1861-08-16

drummers, ten in :an Der, the eldest not
more than twenty, and the youngest little
more than eight years old. Two or three
ffers-jovial, reckless looking. old fellows
preceded them, and both together rat
tied US out on the road, and for miles
along it, as though it were to fair or
dance, or something else, of the sort they
were leading us-so brisk and saucy and
get out of.he-way Old Dan Tuckerish was
the music. After the drummers and fifers
came the Colonel, the Rev. Father o O'Reilly,
the Chaplain of the Goth, Doctors Smith
and Barron, the accomplished Surgeons
of the Regiment, and the writer of this
narrative, who had been detailed as Spe-
cial Aid to the Colonel. ALI these officers
were mounted. The main body Of the
Regiment Immediately followed, the sew
eral companies-ten in all and numbering
one hundred men each-being under the
command Of their respective officers-Cap-
tain Haggerty acting as Lieutenant Colo>
mel, and Captain Nugent, acting as Adju-
tant, both we'll mounted, bringing up the
rear.
Striking the Fairfax turnpike, immedi-
ately on leaving the parade ground, the
Regiment moved on to the village of Falls
Church-A mile from Fort Corcoran, the
camps of the First Wisconsin and the
Thirteenth Of Rochester looked dreary
enough-both these Regiments having
preceded US, leaving only small guard
behind them in charge of the terts and
other regimental property-and beyond
these again, at intervals of two, three, five
and seven miles, the camps Of the Second
New York, of the two Ohio Regiments,
of the two Connecticut and the First
Maine, wore the same desolate look. These
three latter Regiments had taken the lead
under Acting Brigadier Keyes, Colonel in
the regular Army.
Four miles this side of Fairfax, Sher
mans Brigade, to which the Goth Regi>
ment were attached, turned off and leav-
ing Fairfax well to the left, hastened on to
Vienna, which village, after an exhausting
march, they entered an hour and half af-
ter sundown. A mile outside the village,
we were delighted to find acting Major
McKeon, and Paymaster Keogh, gallopipg
up to the regiment. Under the misappre-
hension Of the hour the regiment was or
dered to march, they had gone to Wash
ington on business, but hearing there that
the 69:h had left the Fort, swept after us
as fast as their horses could carry them.
Passing through VIENNA struggling do
zen or two of cottages, with church, a
tavern, a store, a pump and forge here
and there-the regiment, under the direc-
ton of Brigadier Sherman, struck into a
swampy field to the left, and were there
ordered to stack arms and biyouac for the
night.
1t was damp, cloudy, mysterious night
the first night the 6Sth felt they were
in for bloody conflict, and yet knew not,
nor could they in the least divine, where
or how soon the impending blow would be
struck. An round us was the deep hum
of camp of 10000 men-for Schenck's s
and Tyler's forces had passed through vi.
emma in advance of US, and bivouaced in
the fields further up the road-and when
one looked up from bis reeking bed in the
marsh, to which the 69th had been so po-
litely shown for the night, there were tho
bivouac fires burning luridly through the
shifting darkness, and the dense e1hala-
tons Of the sunken lands in which we lay.
After such nights prostration in mud
and fog, it was absolutely refreshing to us
to hear the reveille, and be set upon the
march again. Our poor fellows, as they
rose from the long dripping grass and
rushes, looked as though the blood in their
veins had been turned to water, and their
bones been frozen into stone. They had
been assigned by Brigadier Sherman the
very worss position for their bivouac-the
dampest and the rankest-and that many
of them did not suffer severely and imme-
diately from thus cruelty, is to me the
vaguest wonder. Yet, as they rose, rolled
up their blankets, unstacked their mus
kets, rubbed them dry, and then hastily
partook of their ration of hard bread and
coarse coffee, there was the rollicking
laugh, the sharp joke, hundred queer
and humorsome sayings breaking and
flashing in every direction from the ranks,
just as if they, our boys, had had the driest
and warmest of lodgings for the night, and
had yawned up to the most satisfactory
breakfast imaginable.
Taking me one side, whilst the men
were at their bread and coffes. Fatbar