rom
between their own or their comrades' legs among which they were forever
getting tangled. Whatever the reason, the dogs disappeared, there being
only one poor, limp, fagged-out mongrel left, according to the writer's
observation, to enter with the stately column the city of Frederick. It
is not impossible that some might have turned up in the shape of soup
or stew, had our commissariat been subsequently in so suffering a
condition as on some days and nights we had passed. At such times dog
or cat or mule meat, well stewed, would have been accepted with
enthusiasm and voted an immense success.

We entered Frederick toward the close of the day, and halted there for
a couple of hours or more. The shops were instantly besieged for
eatables and drinkables of every description, but could do little
toward supplying the ravenous demand. At dark we buckled on our harness
again, having three miles yet between us and Monocacy Junction, where
we were to take cars. As we neared the Junction the screaming and
snorting of locomotives greeted our ears, and pleasanter sounds could
hardly be imagined. The idea of a train of cars flying across the
country had haunted us in many and many a toilsome march; and now to
know that such was to bear us over the distance that yet intervened
between us and our homes, and to hear its shrill greeting, and to catch
sight of its glaring Cyclops-eye, all this was indeed exhilarant.

This last three miles was to some of us, probably to all, by far the
severest part of the march; much severer than it would have been had
the rest at Frederick been shorter. The day's performance was certainly
a great feat, only exceeded in severity by our Fourth of July's march
from Carlisle to Laurel Forge through a sea of mud. The distance from
Beaver Creek to Frederick is something like twenty-two miles. We moved
with equipments complete, even cartridge pouches filled. What kept us
up was the near prospect of home which loomed glittering before our
eyes, the knowledge that this was to be our last march, and a belief
that a great emergency existed in New York requiring our immediate
presence. But even under the stimulus of these inspiring motives it is
remarkable that we kept up at all. One poor fellow, a member of the
Fifty-Sixth, N.Y., had no sooner reached camp than his o'erwrought
powers gave way, and he died in half an hour. He had the appearance of
a hardy workingman. Strange that Death, for that day's fatigue,