ut delay, armed and
equipped, to his company parade ground.

All firing except by sentinels in enforcing orders and giving alarms is
strictly prohibited. All loaded muskets will be kept at half-cock and
great care taken in disposing of them and handling them. No troops will
carry arms with fixed bayonets either in or out of quarters."

Our stay at Bridgeport Heights was so brief that the daily recurring
camp duties had not time to crystallize into wearisome routine. Each
day was enlivened by some novelty or amusing incident or other, which
served alike to break the monotony of our work, and to hurry forward
the hours with pleasing animation. Besides, the spot itself was pretty,
and the views from it as beautiful as woods and water and mountains and
far-spread blooming valleys, could well conspire to produce.

Toward the river the hill descends by a double slope,--the upper
gentle, the lower abrupt. The camp was spread upon the former,--the
company streets looking off toward Harrisburg and terminating at the
brow of the bluff. The latter was covered with timber, but so thinly
toward the top as not to intercept the view. Looking down from the
crest of this bluff the eyes rest upon a ribbon of land one hundred
feet below, dotted over with small white houses and little plots of
garden, and divided lengthwise by a country road. Beyond is the river,
in the midst of which lie four or five wooded islands. One of these
stretches up and down for a mile or more, and is made picturesque by
cultivated fields and a farm house nestled among trees. The river is
moreover broken in the present stage of the water by innumerable
shallows where tall grass grows. These green islets appear to be Meccas
to the neighborhood cows; for you may see them daily in solemn file
making pilgrimage thither by the fords. The opposite shore spreads out
in a plain on which stands Harrisburg clustered about its looming
capitol. The landscape up the river is bounded by the Blue Ridge, five
miles off, which melts away behind the city in the far distance.
Through these mountains the Susquehanna has broken its way, forming a
gap whose abrupt sides finely relieve the monotony of the range. From
the summit of the camping ground the view down the river is even more
charming. There the eye wanders over an immense region warm with
ripening wheat fields and white farm houses, and cool with hills, woods
and water. In the distance the winding river, alternately hidden