The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1900-12-14

as tiey u:ut uiScnarScu tneir pieces.
On our side, no movement whatever
was made. The men lay down as
directed, behind row of bushes, which
served. at least to conceal them from
! opponents, and each file regularly
shifted its ground 4 pace or two to the
right or the left as soon as it had filed
BY this means many lives were say,
for the Americans regularly returned
our fire and they never failed to direct
their aim towards tho spots from whence
our smoke ascended.
The affair having lasted four or five
hours, the enemy at length saw fit to
withdraw, and we returned to our
ditch, with trifliny loss of only two
men wounded. Nor did they renew
their amusement during the remain
der of the day. Their cannon. how
ever, continued to annoy us to the last,
insomuch that the very sentinels were
under the necessity of hiding them
selves. Not another musket was fired
and we were ccntent to put up with
the one as being, at all events, less dis
agreeable than the other. But as the
darkness set in, causes of disturbance
multiplied upon us, of which not the
least alarming arose from the cuEpable
negligence of some Of our own people
1t was customary at this time to
cover the army during the day, with a
line of posts, which were considered too
weak to guard it effectual!y at night.
The consequence was, that just before
dusk every evening, reinforcement
was sent up, which, instead of being
scattered among the different pickets
already established, formed distinct
picket of itself. The post attached to
it lay between my party and party
of light brigade, in other words, it
was accustomed to occupy the centre
of line, of which we formed the fanks
Tonight, by some accident or other.
the additional picket was late of arriv-
ing. Our ordcrs-I mean the orders
of the out-posts on the right and left
were to contract their sentrics at sun
set, that room might be left for the
sentries from the arresting guard to
plant themselves. We obeycd them
this evening, as usual. But the state
of our feelings may be more easily
imagined than described, when hour
after hour stole On. and no force APP
peared to fill up the gap which we had
made. How the officer in charge of
the post behaved, know not; but for
me, having waited as long as a sense
of duty would allow, set out, attend
ed by my sergeant, to ascertain the
cause of this unaccountable delay. AS
[ trudged along, a thousand uneasy
thoughts rose in my mind. Some
times | was apprehensive that the di-
vision might have been cut off; at 9th
er times the hazlrd which we not only
but the entire army ran, OF a surprisal,
occurred to me, and | could not, with
such suspicious in my mind, quit the
post Of danger. On the contrary, |
palrpicd backwards and forwards,
from the extreme left of our line to the
from time to time, in the greatest anN-
iety, and finally made up my mind
to throw out some extra scntries. But
as | was preparing to carry the rcso-
luton into practice, my attention was
suddenly called off to other objects.
A heavy trampling of feet became au-
dible. There was Il sound, too, direct
in front, rs Of horses gallopiny, and
first one vidette,thcn another, chal-
lenged. | ran to the spot and reached
it just as the men fired. The report
was followed by burst, as if Il squad
ron of cavalry had broken, and was re-
treating. But whilst was watching
here, the same sound of troops march
ing, caught my ear, and on hurrying
back to the void space, it became
Il Il
| called aloud, but no one answered.
This vas alarming enough, and what
made it more so, was, that the corps,
whatever it might be, seemed to ap
proach in echelon, from the front.
One man only was with me, but deter
mined neither to suffer surprise, nor
needlessly to disturb camp, pushed
forward; pistol in hand, towards the
road We challenged again and again,
no one needed us. My finger al
ready pressed to the trigger, as a body
of men became perceptible, and | re-
Trained from firing only till | should
have challenged the third time. 1t is
well that | had been thus prudent, for
the corps proved to he no other than
the long looked for detachment, which |
had, by some means or another, con-
trived to lose its way, and was now
wandering back from the very brink
of the cnemys canal, TO which it had
proceeded Relieved As | could not
but feel, ut his discovery, my indiyna-
ton was nevertheless too great not ,
burst forth in words | rated the un-
fortunate officer in command roundly,
and leaving my sergeant to assist him
in placing his scntinelS, returned to my
own picket.