s the
quick tap of the timing drum; the only step thought of, the double
quick to the front.

But gradually, the army that had been manoeuvering about the
Rappahannock began to arrive; and day and night the endless stream of
muddy men poured down Main street, in steady tramp for the Peninsula.
Grim and bronzed they were, those veterans of Manassas; smeared with
the clay of their camp, unwashed, unkempt, unfed; many ragged and some
shoeless. But they tramped through Richmond--after their forced
march--with cheery aspect that put to flight the doubts and fears of
her people. Their bearing electrified the citizens; and for the moment,
the rosy clouds of hope again floated above the horizon.

Even the scanty ration the soldiers had become inured to had been
reduced by necessities of their rapid march; and that knowledge caused
every corps that passed through to receive substantial tokens of the
sympathy and good will of the townspeople. Ladies and children thronged
the sidewalks, pressing on their defenders everything which the scanty
Confederate larder could supply; while, from many of the houses,
gloves, socks and comforters rained down upon the worst clad of the
companies.

"Johnny Reb" was ever a cheerful animal, with a general spice of
sardonic humor. Thus refreshed, inwardly and outwardly, the men would
march down the street; answering the waving handkerchiefs at every
window with wild cheers, swelling sometimes into the indescribable
"rebel yell!" Nor did they spare any amount of good-natured chaff to
those luckless stay-at-homes encountered on the streets.

"Come out'r that black coat! I see yer in it!"--"I know ye're a
conscrip'. Don't yer want 'er go for a sojer?"--"Yere's yer chance ter
git yer substertoot!"--and like shouts, leveled at the head of some
unlucky wight, constantly brought roars of laughter from the soldiers
and from his not sympathetic friends. Passing one house, a pale,
boyish-looking youth was noted at a window with a lady. Both waved
handkerchiefs energetically; and the men answered with a yell. But the
opportunity was too good to lose.

"Come right along, sonny! The lady'll spare yer! Here's a little muskit
fur ye'!"

"All right, boys!" cheerily responded the youth, rising from his
seat--"Have you got a leg for me, too?" And Colonel F. stuck the
shortest of stumps on the window-sill.

With one impulse the battalion halted; faced to the window, and
spontaneously came to "Present!" as t