Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1861-07-26
FROM THE SECOND REGIMENT.
Cnrrcauondausa NJ thr I,ur..l

Enron or JOURNAL We are now en-
camped upon the land Of very wealthy Sc
cessionist, who, upon the advance Of the Uni
ted States Volunteers, left his splendid resi-
dence, furniture, &c, and went further south ;
upon which Uncle Sam gave us full perms-
sion to use his estate as we saw it. The
house is occupied by the Colonel in command
Of the Brigade. and the women Of the several
Regiments. On our right arc encamped two
companies Of Ellsworth's Fire Zouaves, while
the rest are encamped about half a mile 10 the
Northeast Of US on our left, and near our
front, are two Maine Regiments. the Sd and
4th; also, not far from us is a Michigan Reg
iment, and along the road towards Alexandria
there are some twenty regiments or more
The other day paid visit to the now
celebrated Marshall House. where Ellsworth
was shO,; it is in a most dilapidated condi-
iion, and the stairs upon which he stood when
fired upon are completely used up. being cut
up and carried away as mcmontos secured
small piece. The city !. full OF traitors aud
l. under martial law The Massachusetts, 9th
Is qulrtered there.
The other night Co. A. and Co. we're
ordered to proceed down the railroad 90 a
bridge which had been burnt by the fobeis,
and act as guard TO those who were repairing
1t. Orders soon after came for Go. f. Gap
iidt Guards) to Join them. We marched
down distance Of about two miles and half,
where we were stationed as pickets, it being
the most advanced point yet made into rebel
land. Our boys were wide awake all night,
and if a rebel had shown himself he would
have been shot. Since then the Maine 4tb
have been out as pickets and routed squad
of some fifteen rebels about three miles from
4
or five of them one being a negro and the
Zouaves caught commissioned officer, who
was with them. | saw them, and must say
they looked like other folks, with the excep-
tion Of being rebels and looking little pale
Our grey uniform looks similar to the - Mt
Vernon Guards "a company Of rebels and
the Aouaves came nigh shooting some Of us
when we first made our appearance but now
they are in our camp and have become so well
acquainted with the Vermont Second that they
will hereafter know las anywhere We have
often divided our rations with them having
plenty 10 eat, such as L is. The Waterbury
Boys, Co. D., have just returned from the
pickets. We had orders last night to be in
readiness to march at 10 clock to-day, but
understand we 90 tomorrow. We take moth
ing but our blankets and three days ratons
We therefore expect fighting soon. We are
in the midst Of rebels, aud it is dangerous to
venture far from camp. Elisha Cass and Will
liam Norris are in private house, sick. at
Washington; but the rest of Co. f. are we'll
The climate here is similar to that Of Vermont,
although we have very warm days and rather
chilly nights. Our regimental post Office ad-
dress is Washington, ID. c. Letters will be
forwarded from there to US wherever we arc
J, B. L.
From Correspondence to the Burlington Times
Our brigade consists Of the three Maine
regiments above mentioned and our own, Of
course. Gen. Howard, ,our Brigadier) was
formerly Colonel Of the 4th Maine regiment.
hear him highly spoken Of He certainly
looks as if he would bring no discredit upon
himself or the brigade. Thursday l accom-
panied detachment which was sent down to
protect a bridge which had been partially de-
stroyed by the rebels. 1t is very near place
called Springfield, abou, six miles from Fair
fax c. H.. and where there is or was, at that
time. quite force Of seccssionists.
The detachment first sent out consisted Of
two companies, Co. A. (Bennington) Capt.
Walbridge, and Co. b, (Castleton) Capt.
Hope, but towards night affairs looked so
suspicious. it was deemed prudent to ask Tor
another company, which we did, and Co. f,
Montpelier Capt Randall, was sent down
30 us. making ia all about $50 men, who full
iy expected 20 saye an opportunity 10 show
"if they we're mon or not, and ] assure you
thcy were eager for the chance
The detachment was under the command
OF Major Joyce, than whom there Is not a
braver officer or finer man in " thousand
He is exceedingly popular with the regiment
and very Justly SO. We were obliged to
march on the railroad, which is lined ON eith-
er side by dense forest, and of course sent
out scouts ahead At o'clock in the after
noon we arrived at the bridge, where the pick
cts consisted of half a dozen men each who
were a quarter OF mile from the main body,
who were stationed in the woods about TWEEN
ty rods from the road. We remained in
this position until dark. when Capt. Randalrs
company having made their appearance the
pickets already out were called in. and vol
unteers called for to act as pickets for the
night, and who were to be sent out to a much
greater distance than the others. Almost
every man offered his services and beg
ged the chance to go on this rather dangerous
duty, but they coud not all well be taken
At last sufficient number were selected
and sent out at least mile in each direction.
We then started up the railroad in the dark.
and assure you it was not the most pleasant
kind of marching some of the time our feet
would hit the ties, and then "agin they
wouldn't and when they did not, there was
no telling when or where you would bring up.
Every ten or fifteen rods there were left a few
men concealed in the bushes, with their guns
cooked, and instructed TO challenge at snce,
and if the countersign was not given immedi-
ately, to fire SO you see 1t was prudent-to
say the least-for any man who had any inn
1 pedment in his speech, to keep as near one
/ place as possible. We proceeded in this way
for a mile perhaps-up the road, where we
/ halted and spread my blanket on the railroad
track, rested my head on one o! the rails. and
/ slept about two hours as soundly and quietly
as if were at home and in comfortable bed.
| forgot to mention that there was a severe
thunder storm about sundown, which did not
add to our comfort in the least. As | said,
| slept about two hours, when we we're alarm
ed by the appearance of the enemy, Major
Joyce ordered the men to form into line and
there we stood ready and expecting to receive
an attack. ! cannot say that | was really
| frightened, but will confess that had ou-
yious kind of sensation in my throat. The
Major was as cool as if he had been in the