Quarles Ford.

May 25. On picket duty out on the bank of a small stream. Captured two
Johnnies. I was on the picket line. We were placed quite a distance apart,
so I was entirely alone. The bank of the stream was quite high, I being
some twenty feet higher than the river and about ten or twelve yards from
it. I saw the Johnnies approaching me on the other side of the river when
some thirty or forty yards away. They were sauntering along, their right
hands holding a number of canteens, their left hands their guns. I was
lying behind the trunk of a fallen tree. I kept perfectly quiet until they
were about twenty or thirty feet from the other side of the river, when I
ordered them to throw down their guns. They dropped them instantly. Then I
ordered them to come in, which they did without hesitation. They forded
the stream, clambered up the bank, and as they reached the top, stood
still and apparently took in the situation. They were men about thirty
years old, one a medium-sized man, the other a large man, five feet, ten
inches or six feet tall. I think they felt a little awkward as they
discovered they had surrendered to a mere boy. The larger one took a fancy
to my gun and stepped forward as if expecting me to hand it to him for
examination. I brought my gun down to the charge, cocked it, and told him
to keep his distance or I should shoot. The smaller man took hold of the
other, pulled him back and said to him, "Don't go near him, he'll shoot
you." "You may be sure I shall," said I. Then I started them to the rear,
keeping about a rod and a half behind them. When I reached headquarters
the colonel came out of his tent and came up to me and said, "What have
you been up to, Mad?" An officer stuck his head out of a nearby tent and
shouted, "Why didn't you bring in the whole regiment while you were about
it?" Another called out, "Tell us how you did it, Mad." Another answered
back, "Ah, he surrounded them." And so they had quite a bit of
good-natured fun at my expense. Well, a corporal and guard came and took
charge of the Rebs and I went back to my place on the picket line again.

May 26. We recrossed to the north side of the river and went back to near
Oxford and went into bivouac. The army was on the move and we were doing
picket duty. I was way off in the wood, apparently all alone and there was
not another picket within fifteen rods of me. I was lying down behind the
trunk of a tree some twenty to twenty-four inches th