en would pull the capes of their overcoats over their
heads, drop their chins upon their breasts and sleep. The horses
plodded along and doubtless were asleep too, doing their work as a
somnambulist might, walking while they slept.

Soon thereafter, Colonel Alger with five troops (troop "B," commanded by
Captain Peter A. Weber, having been added to the four that were with him
at Vienna) was sent to a place called "Camp Meeting Hill," where a camp
was established that proved to be a permanent one. At least, we remained
there until Hooker's army moved northward. This was a delightful place.
The tents were pitched in a grove of large timber on a piece of ground
that was high and dry, sloping off in every direction. It was by the
side of the pike running south from Vienna, two miles from that place,
close to the Leesburg pike and the Loudoun railroad. A semi-circular
line of pickets was established in front of Washington, the right and
left resting on the Potomac, above and below the city respectively. Our
detachment guarded the extreme right of the line. Colonel Gray was five
miles to the left, with the remainder of the Sixth, and the Fifth still
farther away in that direction. About two miles in front of our camp ran
the "Difficult" Creek, a small, deep stream with difficult banks, that
rises somewhere in the Bull Run country, and empties into the Potomac
near the Great Falls above Washington. A line of videttes was posted
along this creek. An enemy could not easily surprise them, as the stream
was in their front. Well out toward this line from the main camp, two
reserves were established, commanded by captains, and still farther out
smaller reserves, under charge of the lieutenants and sergeants. Each
troop had a tour of this duty, twenty-four hours on and forty-eight off.
The "off" days were given to reading, writing and exploring the country
on horseback.

It was a charming region, not much desolated by the war, being rather
out of the beaten track of the armies. Parties of officers often used to
take a run across country to Gray's camp, clearing fences and ditches as
they went. In these expeditions, Colonel Alger was always the leader
with Captain Weber a close second. On one of these gallopades, he and
Weber, who were riding in advance, cleared a stream full of water and
about eight or nine feet wide, but when I tried to follow, my horse
jumped into instead of across the ditch, the water coming up to the
saddle-girt