he
ground was very soft from recent rains, and the mud was something
terrible. If one has never encountered Virginia mud, he can have no
adequate idea of the meaning of the word. It gets a grip on your feet
and just won't let go. Every rise of your pedal extremities requires a
mighty tug, as if you were lifting the earth, as indeed you are--a much
larger share of it than is comfortable.

A tramp of a mile and a half brought us to Hancock's old camp. In my
weak condition I was thoroughly exhausted, and so my "contraban" claimed
to be, for he positively refused to go another step. I got my
quartermaster friend to take care of my baggage, whilst I continued my
search for our division camp. I was not successful in finding it that
night, and was obliged to accept the invitation of a sick officer of the
Eighty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers to share his quarters for the
night. I had eaten breakfast at five o'clock that morning in Washington
and had eaten nothing since, and it was now dusk. I was not only tired,
but faint for want of food. This officer, whose name I regret I have
forgotten, was a brother Mason, and kindly divided his meagre rations
with me, which consisted of boiled rice and hardtack. He had a little
molasses, with which the former was lubricated, and a good strong cup of
coffee was added. It was not Waldorf-Astoria fare, to be sure, and the
explanation was that the boys had taken almost everything eatable with
them.

The next morning I picked up an old "crow-bait" of a horse, the only
four-footed transportation possibly obtainable, and started for
Fredericksburg to find my regiment. The only directions I had about
disposing of this frame of a horse was to "turn the bones loose when you
get through with him." He could go only at a snail's pace, and when I
reached Fredericksburg it must have been nine o'clock. I crossed the
pontoon bridge, which had been laid the morning before under
circumstances of the greatest gallantry by Howard's division of our
corps.

The "ball" was now well opened. Marye's Heights (pronounced Marie, with
the accent on the last letter, as if spelled Maree), circling the city
from the river above to a point below the city, was literally crowded
with batteries of rebel artillery. These guns were firing at our
batteries on the heights on the other side of the river, and also upon
our troops occupying the city. The air was filled with screeching,
bursting shells, and a deafening pandemoni