roduced by him. Before that, every detachment done its own
cooking. The enterprise itself, of cooking for the whole company, and the
selling of a part of the rations, for raising a company fund, would have
been well enough, but the management was extremely poor. Some days we
fared well; on other days there would be no dinner, but a detestable bacon
soup, hardly fit for hogs. We were told that the government rations would
not admit of a dinner every day. But what good did it do then to sell
rations, under the pretext of raising a company fund? This is a question
which never could nor never will be satisfactorily explained by those who
started it.

_Monday, October 7._--Capt. Tompkins very suddenly marched off to Harper's
Ferry, with the right section. Thunder storm in the evening.

_Friday, October 11._--A new lieutenant for our battery arrived to-day.
Jeffrey Hassard, our First Lieutenant's brother.

_Sunday, October 13._--Gov. Sprague visited the camp. Private Benedict
deserted.

_Tuesday, October 15._--Parade drill of the battery, in presence of Gov.
Sprague, and Col. Tompkins, the drill proving very satisfactory. Capt.
Vaughan visited us the same evening, and addressed us as follows: "Boys, I
deserve to be kicked for ever leaving this battery, because, by right, it
is my battery, and I should be with you." (Vociferous cheering, and cries,
"Give us our old officers, and we will show you that we can drill.") Capt.
Vaughan, mounting his horse, appeared very much affected. Turning round
once more, he said, "I am hanging around; it is hard for me to leave
you." Answer of the men: "We know it. You are a man every inch of you."
Nine cheers for Capt. Vaughan, our old First Lieutenant, vibrated through
the air.

_Wednesday, October 16._--Battery drill, and speech by our First
Lieutenant. Gen. Banks visited our camp this evening. Nothing important up
to

_Saturday, October 19._--Gen. Banks and staff honored our battery drill
with their presence. Col. Geary of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania, and
Capt. Tompkins, with the right section, had a fight with the rebels at
Harper's Ferry and Bolivar Heights. Our right section, occupying Maryland
Heights, fired into Bolivar and on a rebel battery on Loudon Heights. Even
the drivers served an old iron gun. Col. Geary's troops, crossing the
river in scows, carried the fight to Bolivar Heights. No loss of men in
the right section.

_Monday, October 21._--Battle of Ball's Bluff. Gen