and disregarding the appeals of his own eager officers. We
marched through the open pine woods, on a delightful afternoon, and met
the returning party. Poor fellows! I never shall forget the longing eyes
they cast on us, as we marched forth to the field of glory, from which
they were debarred. We went three or four miles out, sometimes halting
to send forward a scout, while I made all the men lie down in the long
thin grass and beside the fallen trees, till one could not imagine that
there was a person there. I remember how picturesque the effect was,
when, at the signal, all rose again, like Roderick Dhu's men, and the
green wood appeared suddenly populous with armed life. At a certain
point forces were divided, and a detachment was sent round the head of
the creek to flank the unsuspecting enemy; while we of the main body,
stealing with caution nearer and nearer, through ever denser woods,
swooped down at last in triumph upon a solitary farm-house,--where the
family-washing had been hung out to dry!

It is due to Sergeant Greene, my invaluable guide, to say that he had
from the beginning discouraged any high hopes of a crossing of bayonets.
He had early explained that it was not he who claimed to have seen the
tents and the Rebel soldiers, but one of the officers,--and had pointed
out that our undisturbed approach was hardly reconcilable with the
existence of a hostile camp so near. This impression had also pressed
more and more upon my own mind, but it was our business to put the thing
beyond a doubt. Probably the place may have been occasionally used for a
picket station, and we found fresh horse-tracks in the vicinity, and
there was a quantity of iron bridle-bits in the house, of which no clear
explanation could be given; so that the armed men may 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 le