The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1897-01-08

pc ilioldet VI ~ my uo"H W iSoe.
About midnight. indeed, and for six
hours after it, these feelings began to
operate very powerfully. The m n
strayed from their ranks; the officers
found great difficulty in urging them
on; some dozed upon their legs, and
fell under the feet Of their comrades;
others threw themselves by the way.
side, refusing to proceed farther. In
Il word, hy seven o'clock in the follow
ing morning, it was perfectly manifest
that an hours rest must be taken, 9TH
erwiss one-half of the troops would be
in danger of falling into the hands of
the enemy.
We had accomplished journey of
some eighteen or twenty miles, when
to the unspeakable JOY Of every man in
the army, the General, finding himself
arrived at a convenient spot, command
ell a halt. | candidly confess, that |
know nothing of the nature of the
ground on which the halt occurred,
not Of the dispositions which were
made to render it secure, for my men
were hardly stretched upon the grass
when | followed their example. The
only precaution which | took, was to
seek out shady tree whose branches
from seven o'clock till little before
noon, slept as soundly as ever weary
traveller has slept, or could desire to
sleep. At that period was awakened
to breakfast; and in half an hour after,
the column was again in motion.
The sun had set, and twilight was
rapidly closing in, when we found our
selves once more in the vicinity of
Marlborough. There it was resolved
to pass the night; and as the same
position was taken up which we had
occupied during the advance, every
man felt himself in some degree at
home. For ourselves, Charlton and /,
willing, if possible, to find shelter un-
der roof, wandered away to a house
about stones throw apart from the
corps; but it would have been better
perhaps, that we had remrined in the
open air. The house in question was
filled with such of the wounded, as it
had been found practicable to remove
on horseback, and in the clumsy way
ons which our troopers succeeded in
capturing. There We're if | recollect
among whom We were persuaded to lie
down. But the grOans, and querulous
complaints of some of these brave men,
complaints which everyone who has
filled their situation will understand,
anti for which few will hesitate to make
allowance. etfectually broke in upon
our repO e. We could not 90 to sleep
under such circumstances; and hence
the greater part Of that night was
spent in vain endeavors to bestow COM
fort upon those, whom bodily suffering
rendered perfectly dead to every con-
sideration except the desire of ease.
| We were glad to retire about two in
the morning, and to snatch few hours
of broken rest under shed HARDLY.
The dawn had not yet appeared,
when the well-known sound of troops
mastering upon their ground, awoke
us. We took our places, as usual, with
the men; and having waited till there
was light enough to direct our steps,
once more began our march. There
was nothing in to-day's operations at
all worthy of notice. The country we
| had already traversed, and it exhibited
of course, an appearance exactly SINH
lar to that which it exhibited before:
! whilst the absence Of everything like
annoyance on the part OF the Ameri,
cans rendered our whole progress more
dull and monotonous than would have
been wished. We were, accordingly
vtry well pleased at beholding the
houses in Nottingham again rise in
view: and our satisfaction suffered no
decrease when informed, that here, as
formerly, the night should be passed.
1t so happened, that Charlton and |
fixed ourselves in the identical barn
which had sheltered rs before. And
the reader will not he surprised to
learn, that that apparently nnimpor-
tant occurrence affected us more deep
| ly, than any which had taken place
during the whole course of the inroad
1t was impossible to lie down upon
the tobacco without thinking of the
| y
side us, Only seven days ago. True
h, had been but chOrt time our com
rade; we had enjoyed few opportuni-
, ties of Judging rs to his temper, dispo-
sition and general character, and we,
neither of us, felt for him, what we felt
for one another But the little which
we had seen of him, had all been favor
able: and his unaffected and noble be-
haviour in this very barn, forcibly oc-
, Cured to us. | am not ashamed to
confess that we shed some tears to his
memory; and that he constituted al
most the only subject of our converse,
! ton whilst we remained awake.
After night of sound and refresh
ing sleep, we rose in confident eXpec-
! tation of continuing the retreat, and