by their opponents.

Once a week quite regularly an old negro man came to our camp with a
wagon-load of fine oysters from Tappahannock. It was interesting to see
some of the men from our mountains, who had never seen the bivalve
before, trying to eat them, and hear their comments. Our custom was to
buy anything to eat that came along, and so they had invested their
Confederate notes in oysters. One of them gave some of my messmates an
account of the time his mess had had with their purchases. When it was
proposed that they sell their supply to us, he said, "No, we are not
afraid to tackle anything, and we've made up our minds to eat what we've
got on hand, if it takes the hair off."

While in this camp, although it was after a five-months' absence, I
invariably waked about two minutes before my time to go on guard, having
slept soundly during the rest of the four hours. One officer, always
finding me awake, asked if I ever slept at all. The habit did not
continue, and had not been experienced before. An instance of the
opposite extreme I witnessed here in an effort to rouse Silvey, who was
generally a driver. After getting him on his feet, he was shaken,
pulled, and dragged around a blazing fire, almost scorching him, until
the guard-officer had to give him up. If feigning, it was never
discovered.

The contents of my box having long since been consumed, I, with several
others, was sent, under command of Lieut. Cole Davis, to my section at
Jack's Hill. There we were quartered in some negro cabins on this bleak
hill, over which the cold winds from Port Tobacco Bay had a fair sweep.
On my return from the sentinel's beat one snowy night I discovered, by
the dim firelight, eight or ten sheep in our cabin, sheltering from the
storm. The temptation, with such an opportunity, to stir up a panic, was
hard to resist. But, fearing the loss of an eye or other injury to the
prostrate sleepers on the dirt floor, by the hoof of a bucking sheep, I
concluded to forego the fun. After a stay of several weeks we were
ordered back to the other section, much to our delight. In that barren
region, with scant provender and protected from the weather by a roof of
cedar-brush, our horses had fared badly, and showed no disposition to
pull when hitched to the guns that were held tight in the frozen mud. To
one of the drivers, very tall and long of limb, who was trying in vain
with voice and spur to urge his team to do its best, our Irish wit,