Whether hastily called to the breastworks and formed into
line, expecting, it may be, to see the enemy drawn up on the distant
hills; or dismissed with orders not to leave our company parade, and to
lose not an instant in "falling in" at the first tap of the "Assembly,"
as the signal for regimental muster is called, or at the more ominous
and alarming sound of the "Long-Roll;" whether retiring to our tents
for the night, ordered to sleep on our arms; or awakened suddenly by
the sharp "Halt! Who goes there?" of the passing sentinel; there seemed
to cover the camp of the Twenty-Third--and the same was probably true
of every other camp in that menaced stronghold--a mantle of repose such
as they feel who fear no evil. Nevertheless had an assault been made
with one-half the force, say, which carried the works of Winchester a
few weeks previously, and with the same impetuous valor, there can
hardly be two opinions as to the result. We should have resisted
bravely and hurled back the enemy, green though we were; but a resolute
persistence of assault by so superior a force would have compelled us
to fly. For though our position was naturally strong its defences
appeared to the uninitiated to be wretchedly inadequate. The number of
mounted pieces was only thirteen, nearly all of which were three-inch
rifles, carrying about a ten-pound bolt, manned, in part at least, by a
militia company, tyros in the service of that arm, though as brave,
patriotic and intelligent a set of men as the militia call had summoned
to the field. Of the infantry only three or four regiments had been
under fire, and these only in light skirmishes. Besides, the
construction of the defensive works appeared to some of the
unprofessional of us to be extremely faulty. The soil of the place is a
slaty clay known geologically as _shale_. This being thrown up to form
a breastwork constituted, as was thought by some of those whose duty it
was to be to stand behind it and deliver their fire when the order
came, a source of greater danger to them than rebel shot or shell. A
ball striking the parapet near the top would have scattered a shower of
stones into the faces of the men standing behind it, thus acting with
almost as fatal effect as a shell bursting in the very midst of them.
But it is to be presumed the fortifications were constructed on
scientific principles by men specially trained for this business. At
any rate, we were fortunately spared the experimental t