artillerymen from another
battery on foot, who were on the same errand, but none of us armed. We
saw a Yankee infantryman a short distance off, hurrying along with gun
on shoulder. We called to him to surrender, and, as I rode to get his
gun, another one following came in sight. When I confronted him and
ordered him to throw down his gun, he promptly obeyed. The gun, a
brand-new one, was loaded, showing a bright cap under the hammer. The
man was a German, and tried hard, in broken English, to explain, either
how he had fallen behind, or to apologize for coming to fight us--I
could not tell which.

We now had full and undisturbed possession of Manassas Junction and of
the long trains of captured cars, through the doors and openings of
which could be seen the United States army supplies of all kinds and of
the best quality. On a flat car there stood two new pieces of artillery
made of a bronze-colored metal, and of a different style from any we had
yet seen. In our last battle, that of Slaughter's Mountain, we had
noticed, for the first time, a singular noise made by some of the shells
fired at us, and quite like the shrill note of a tree-frog on a big
scale. Since then we had sometimes speculated as to what new engine of
war we had to contend with. Here it was, and known as the three-inch
rifled gun, a most accurate shooter, and later on much used by both
Federals and Confederates.

In view of the fact that almost all of the field artillery used by the
Confederates was manufactured in the North, a supply for both armies
seemed to have been wisely provided in the number they turned out. Here
we spent the remainder of the day, but not being allowed to plunder the
cars did not have the satisfaction of replacing our worn-out garments
with the new ones in sight. We were very willing to don the blue
uniforms, but General Jackson thought otherwise. What we got to eat was
also disappointing, and not of a kind to invigorate, consisting, as it
did, of hard-tack, pickled oysters, and canned stuff generally.

Darkness had scarcely fallen before we were again on the march, and
before two miles had been traveled the surrounding country was
illuminated by the blazing cars and their contents, fired to prevent
their falling again into the hands of their original owners. The entire
night was spent marching through woods and fields, but in what direction
we had no idea. Notwithstanding the strict orders to the contrary, two
of our boys-