to recover their wind.

It was a warm day late in October. The nights at this time were keen and
frosty, but the sun at mid-day still showed much of his Summer
vigor. Perspiration flowed freely down the faces of those wandering
Hoosiers--faces that were fast assuming the color of half-tanned leather
under the influence of sunshine and storm.

Once an hour there was the customary halt, when the boys would stretch
their legs by the roadside, hitching their knapsacks up under their
heads. When the allotted time had expired the bugler blew "Fall in," the
notes of which during the next two years became so familiar to the ears
of the 200th. Later in '64, the Indiana boys mingled their voices with
the rest of Sherman's hundred thousand veterans as they sang:

"I know you are tired, but still you must go
Down to Atlanta to see the big show."

The soldiers were in good spirits. As they marched they fired jests at
one another, and laughter rippled along the line.

The only thing that troubled them was the emaciated condition of their
haversacks, with a corresponding state of affairs in their several
stomachs. The Commissary Department was thoroughly demoralized. The
supply train had failed to connect, and rations were almost exhausted.
There was no prospect that the aching void would be filled, at least, in
the regular way, until they reached a certain place, which would not be
until the following day.

Strict orders against foraging were issued almost daily under the Buell
dispensation. These were often read impressively to the new troops, who,
in their simplicity, "took it all in" as military gospel.

[Illustration: THE 200th IND. WAS NOT WITHOUT TALENT IN FORAGING 169 ]

The effect was somewhat depressing upon the ardor with which otherwise
they would have pursued the panting pig and the fluttering fowl, and
reveled in the orchards and potato-fields. A few irrepressible fellows
managed to get a choice meal now and then--just enough to show that the
200th Ind. was not without latent talent in this direction, which only
needed a little encouragement to become fruitful of results.

But these orders against foraging didn't hold the soldiers of the crop
of 1861. It was like trying to carry water in a sieve. When rations were
short, or if they wanted to vary the rather monotonous bill of fare,
they always found a way to make up any existing deficiency.

On the day in question a few hints were thrown out which res