The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-09-04


seriousness which no other thought is
| capable of producing. But when he is
securing the woods, or advancing
through fields and Enclosures, his men
all about him, and eager and animated,
like huntsmen about foN-cover-the
officer must be phlegmatic indeed,
whose energies are not wrough up to
a degree of enthusiasm which causes
all apprehension of personal risk to be
| forgotten, and directs his whole
thoughts into one channel-namely,
how he is most successfully to discharge
his duty when the moment oftrial shall
arrive. | am not one of those who,
writing in my own study, pretend to
say, that | should prefer bloody bat
tie to snug dinner with my friends,
and a social glass of wine after it; but
confess, that during the remainder
Of our progress, one wish, and one on
ly, rose into my mind: and that was,
that the Americans would afford me an
opportunity, with the twenty brave
men whom commanded, to make what
impression | could upon any of their
ambuscades. however numerous. or
however judiciously y disposed.
All my eager aspirations after re-
nown were, however, doomed to suffer
disappointment. The Americans would
not make stand. We saw them, in
deed, again, just rs we reached the
skirt of the forest: and, falling in once
more with the river, wheeled up to-
wards the open country around Not
tingham; but it was in full flight, and
already at the farther extremity of the
town. We saw, likewise, that few of
our mounted officers, Colonel Thornton,
Major Brown, and, if | mistake not,
the General himself, attempted, in the
II ,st dashing and gallant style, to
charge their rear, and cut off their
stragglers; but the charge of three or
four horsemen was easily repulsed, and
the stragglers, striking off towards the
plantations on either flank were soon
safe from farther molestation. Some
what veXed that they should have thus
escaped us, we were accordingly obliged
to halt, where we had been ordered to
halt, in the village; and here the rest
of the army joining us, dispositions
were made to pass the night. The
pickets were planted without delay;
the different brigades took up their re-
spective grounds; and Charlton, Will
liams, and |, not Il little weary with
our excursion, ensconced ourselves un-
der the shade of large barn, plenti-
fully stored with tobacco.
The reader must he already well
aware, that if the purport of the pres
ent debarkation really was to seize
Commodore Barney's iotilla of gun
boats, it completely failed of success;
The boats were all gone. They set
sail, us one of the few remaining inhab
itants informed us, at an early hour
this morning, and were now many
miles nearer to the source of the Pa
tuxent than we But this circumstance,
whatever effect it might have had up
on the minds of those at the head OF
affairs, was the cause of no annoyance
to us. We were, on the whole, very
well pleased with all that had yet be-
fallen us. We were particularly salts
fled in finding ourselves so snugly
housed for the night; and it added not
little to our qualification, when We
| discovered that our Portuguese ser
wants had not been remiss in providing
the requisites for sumptuous evening
repast. Turkeys and geese had by
| some cnance or anOlleT lo" ii lillo Giici
hands as they proceeded; and these
they now made ready, for their own,
and their masters suppers. And then
with respect to tobacco, that principal
dalicacy of soldiers upon active service,
there was no reasonable cause either
for scarcity or complaint. The house
which sheltered us was full of it; and
though the broad arrow had been i'm
pressed upon the door, we scrupled not
to appropriate to our own use, not only
rs much as we required ut the moment,
but a stock sufficient, as we guessed,
to supply our wants for several days
to come. TO sum up all, the quarter
with stores of bread and rum, an addi-
tional allowance of both was served out
as well to the men as to the officers.
On the whole, therefore, u thousand
situations may he conceived many de
yrees less enviable than ours; when,
with fire blazing before us, and tie
remains of our supper taken away, we
reclined, pipe in hanl, and drinking
cup hard by, within the porch of the
hospitable barn, chatting over the oc-
currences of the morning, and calcula-
ting what might be the issue of fto-mol-
rows operations.
OF the disposition of the army in gen
eral, it falls not in with the plan of my
present story to say much. Let it
suffice to observe, that Nottingham, a
small town, or rather an overgrown
village upon the PatuNent, was occu-
pied by the light and second brigades;
the third brigade taking post among
the out-buildings of a few tarm-houses