not have been
wholly imaginary. But camp there was none. After enjoying to the utmost
the fun of the thing, therefore, we borrowed the only horse on the
premises, hung all the bits over his neck, and as I rode him back to
camp, they clanked like broken chains. We were joined on the way by our
dear and devoted surgeon, whom I had left behind as an invalid, but who
had mounted his horse and ridden out alone to attend to our wounded,
his green sash looking quite in harmony with the early spring verdure
of those lovely woods. So came we back in triumph, enjoying the joke all
the more because some one else was responsible. We mystified the little
community at first, but soon let out the secret, and witticisms abounded
for a day or two, the mildest of which was the assertion that the author
of the alarm must have been "three sheets in the wind."

Another expedition was of more exciting character. For several days
before the arrival of Colonel Rust a reconnaissance had been planned in
the direction of the enemy's camp, and he finally consented to its being
carried out. By the energy of Major Corwin, of the Second South Carolina
Volunteers, aided by Mr. Holden, then a gunner on the Paul Jones, and
afterwards made captain of the same regiment, one of the ten-pound
Parrott guns had been mounted on a hand-car, for use on the railway.
This it was now proposed to bring into service. I took a large detail of
men from the two white regiments and from my own, and had instructions
to march as far as the four-mile station on the railway, if possible,
examine the country, and ascertain if the Rebel camp had been removed,
as was reported, beyond that distance. I was forbidden going any farther
from camp, or attacking the Rebel camp, as my force comprised half our
garrison, and should the town meanwhile be attacked from some other
direction, it would be in great danger.

I never shall forget the delight of that march through the open pine
barren, with occasional patches of uncertain swamp. The Eighth Maine,
under Lieutenant-Colonel Twichell, was on the right, the Sixth
Connecticut, under Major Meeker, on the left, and my own men, under
Major Strong, in the centre, having in charge the cannon, to which they
had been trained. Mr. Heron, from the John Adams, acted as gunner.
The mounted Rebel pickets retired before us through the woods, keeping
usually beyond range of the skirmishers, who in a long line--white,
black, white--were deployed tr