service rendered to Carlisle by General
Smith on this occasion of alarm, some ladies of the place have since
presented to him the compliment of a silver urn:--the only instance, by
the way, which the citizens or government of Pennsylvania is known to
have furnished of their appreciation of the service they received at
the hands of the New York Militia.

On coming to a halt in the field of our bivouac, our officers were
considerate enough to spend but little time in getting us into line and
stacking arms. Straps were unbuckled and luggage tumbled, a dead
weight, to the ground in less time than it takes to tell it. We spread
our rubber blankets upon the wet grass, and drawing on our overcoats
dropped down to rest, each man behind his musket. Some of the less
weary went in search of water to drink, and some had the wisdom to
bathe their hot, overworked feet in the neighbouring brook.

It was a new experience to most of us--this lying down with the clouds
for our coverlid, and serenaded with the music of distant battle.
Though we did not wrap ourselves up sentimentally in the dear old flag,
it seemed as if the God of battles looked down from on high upon our
shelterless condition, and folded us in his own more glorious banner of
clouds. If our anxious mothers could have seen us at that moment lying
down to sleep without protection from the night air and the rain which
threatened, they would have most piteously bewailed our lot. Many of us
expected that the morning would find us coughing, sneezing and
wheezing, or moping about feverish on account of broken sleep, if not
pinned to the ground by the sharp needles of rheumatism. But
notwithstanding the strange sounds which filled our ears and our
imaginations, we hardly had time, after stretching ourselves upon the
ground, to review our situation before sleep caught us: and we slept
gloriously well. Not a man of us, it is probable, who made a prudent
use of blanket and overcoat, but rose next morning refreshed.

Now that the stirring events of those days are history it may be
interesting to notice as we go along the rapid evolution of the drama
of Gettysburg, which we, so lately menaced in our stronghold at Fort
Washington, little dreamed was being consummated with such tremendous
suddenness. It was so lately as the Sunday just passed that we were
kept under arms all day expecting an assault from Ewell, who was known
to be threatening Harrisburg with the greatest part of his