n sent out in
advance when we broke camp, one or two for each company it was said.
One of these now made his appearance, having in company a poor farmer
whom he had found up in the mountains. He was dressed in jean blouse
and overalls, wore a slouched hat, and sat astride a small imitation of
a horse, which bore also two well-filled bags slung across his back,
before and behind the rider. These bags disgorged lima beans, onions,
radishes, a pile of fresh bread and a crock of butter; none of which,
it may well be believed, were wasted. On this halt we were treated to
our usual daily ration of shower--the only ration we received
regularly. It rained for several hours, wetting us enough to make us
miserable. Early in the afternoon we got started again, much to our
relief.

As we were now entered upon the last week of our term of service, and
as there did not appear to us to be any immediate prospect of further
fighting--at least of fighting in which we should be engaged--we had
been thinking all day that our faces were at length set toward home,
and that Boonesboro' was to be the next stage of our journey; then some
point between Boonesboro' and Frederick; then Frederick, where we
should find railroad transportation direct for Baltimore, Philadelphia
and New York. This was a pretty fancy, and we discussed it with great
vivacity. It beguiled the march and helped us amazingly over the
abominable roads and through the more abominable rain. There was but
little singing, however, "Homeward Bound" being as yet far from _fait
accompli_. Besides, we had not been in singing mood, as a general
thing, these many days--marching along usually with a quiet, dogged,
philosophic endurance of discomfort.

But these visions of home with which we had filled one another's hearts
we knew hardly deserved any better name than day-dreams; for though we
were marching toward home, we were also marching toward the enemy,
General Meade being at that very moment, though happily for our dreams
we knew it not, feeling the enemy and preparing for a vigorous attack
upon him on the morrow; in which prospective event we were doubtless
looked to as a portion of the reserve force. This tended to sober the
exuberance of our hopes. It was interesting to watch in the spirit of
the men the play of this struggle between hope and fear. We had marched
but a mile or two from the wood when we made another halt in a field by
the road. In a certain part of the line a