as hounds in leash. Since they would not come up and give us battle we wanted to be off and have it out with them. And the people were tired of delay. The cry of 'ste'boy!'was ringing all over the north. They wanted to cut us loose and be through with dallying.
Well, one night the order came; we were to go south in the morning - thirty thousand of us, and put an end to the war. We did not get away until afternoon - it was the 6th of July. When we were off, horse and foot, so that I could see miles of the blue column before and behind me, I felt sorry for the mistaken South. On the evening of the i8th our camp-fires on either side of the pike at Centreville glowed like the lights of a city. We knew the enemy was near, and began to feel a tightening of the nerves. I wrote a letter to the folks at home for post mortem delivery, and put it into my trousers'pocket. A friend in my company called me aside after mess.
'Feel of that,'he said, laying his hand on a full breast.