ington more rapidly than they
came, we thought that the war would end without our firing a gun. So
little did we understand the firmness of President Lincoln's mind and
the settled purpose of the North!

The winter was spent in comparative comfort, for we moved out of tents
into cabins built of pine logs, each one having a wide arch and a
chimney. At Christmas some good things were sent to me, among which was
a dressed turkey, which I did not know how to prepare for the table, for
even if I had possessed some knowledge of the culinary art there was no
suitable oven. Fortunately a comrade by the name of John Cook,--an
appropriate name for that occasion,--came to my relief and solved the
problem in a most satisfactory manner. The bird was suspended by a
string before the open fire, and being continually turned right and
left, and basted with grease from a plate beneath, it was beautifully
browned and cooked to a turn.

CHAPTER III

Drummer, strike up, and let us march away.
--SHAKESPEARE'S _Henry VI_.

In the spring of 1862 Gen. George B. McClellan with an army of 120,000
men, thoroughly drilled and lavishly equipped, set out from Washington
to capture Richmond from the north; but he had not proceeded far before
he changed his mind about the line of advance. His forces were
transported to Fortress Monroe with the design of approaching the city
by the way of the peninsula that lies between the York and the James
rivers. The correctness of his judgment was justified by subsequent
campaigns; for the successive attempts of Pope, Burnside, Hooker, and
Grant to take the Confederate capital from the north were all disastrous
failures.

In order to check the upward progress of McClellan's army, Gen. Joseph
E. Johnston withdrew his forces from Manassas and the shore of the
Potomac and concentrated them on the Peninsula. The 47th regiment
marched from its winter quarters to Richmond, and was thence transported
down the James to a wharf not far from Yorktown. During our brief stay
in that vicinity, the companies were authorized to elect their officers;
and I, who had been acting as Orderly Sergeant, was chosen Third
Lieutenant.

As the National army advanced, the Confederates fell back toward
Richmond. Our regiment was not in the engagement that took place near
Williamsburg on the 5th of May, but I saw then for the first time some
wounded men and prisoners. The retreat was conducted s