should
have passed by men unused to severe toil, and lain his strong hand on
one of sinewy frame.

The place of encampment was a piece of woods near the railroad. The
ground was somewhat damp and the air heavy with mist; but too fagged
out to pitch tents, we spread our rubber blankets and dropped upon
them. Moreover we did not suppose we were to rest there during the
whole night, but expected to be called up soon to take the cars. In
that bivouac, our bodies overheated and their nervous energy exhausted,
there was peril, much greater peril than many of us thought of; but the
night passed quietly and uneventfully.

_Friday 17th._--The hours of Friday melted away one by one without
bringing any intimation of a further movement. But a little after
midnight following we were ordered into line to take the cars for
Baltimore. It soon began to rain, and so continued till dawn; during
all which time we remained under arms on the road, waiting, and got
thoroughly wet again. At dawn the Twenty-Third and Fifty-Sixth were
packed aboard a train of thirty cars similar to those which transported
us from Philadelphia to Harrisburg at the outset of our campaign, and
which we had thought so wretched. Some of them were provided with three
or four rough pine boards for seats, and the rest with nothing
whatever. But now our plane of view was shifted greatly; and the
thought that our long marches, our exhausting fasts, our comfortless
bivouacs were all ended, was so ravishing that we regarded the car as
an asylum from misery.

We reached Baltimore about 4 P.M., where we got refreshments, and
expected to take cars for Philadelphia at once, transportation having
been secured for the Twenty-Third by its officers. The brigade,
however, was ordered to proceed together _via_ Harrisburg; and we
accordingly marched across the city some two miles to the Harrisburg
depot where we embarked about midnight on a train similar in style to
that which had brought us from Frederick. Our progress was very slow,
owing probably to interruptions on the road, the rebels having burnt
the bridges and torn up and twisted the rails. Repairs were by this
time nearly completed, though several structures we crossed were
considered very unsafe for the passage of trains.

_Saturday, 18th._--We spent the day for the most part on the car-tops
which afforded a charming panorama of the pretty country we were
traversing. The train being more than one half the time at a
st