.

[Illustration: B. C. M. Friend]

The battle had now begun, the enemy firing at us from a strongly
fortified fort near the town. Their target practice was no criterion of
their shooting when being shot at, as not one of us was even wounded.
While the battle was in progress we had a repetition of the race at
Fredericksburg when there dashed from the Federal fort three artillery
horses, which came at full speed over the mile between us, appearing and
disappearing from view. On reaching the battery they were caught, and
one of them, which we named "Milroy," was driven by James Lewis at the
wheel of my gun, and restored with "Sedgwick" to his old associates at
Appomattox.

Night put a stop to hostilities, and the next day, until late in the
afternoon, we passed inactively. Then Hayes's Louisiana Brigade,
formerly commanded by Gen. Dick Taylor, formed in our front and,
charging with the old yell, captured the fort. After night I found two
members of our company in possession of a little mule, equipped with
saddle and bridle, supposed to be a United States animal. They said they
were afraid of mules, and turned him over to me. I forthwith mounted,
and passed an hour pleasantly, riding around. As I once heard a little
negro say, "I went everywhar I knowed, an' everywhar I didn't know I
come back." I felt now that I had a mount for the campaign, but next
morning one of the Richmond Howitzers claimed the mule and identified it
as his.

The bulk of Milroy's force escaped during the night, but we captured
four thousand prisoners, twenty-eight pieces of artillery, and hundreds
of wagons and horses, and equipped ourselves, as we had done in 1862, at
the expense of Banks. For our two recently acquired English Blakeley
guns we substituted two twenty-pound Parrotts, giving us four guns of
the same caliber. On the thirteenth we crossed the Potomac at
Shepherdstown, thence by way of Hagerstown, Maryland, to Greencastle,
Pennsylvania, the first live Yankee town we had visited in war times.
Many of the stores were open and full of goods, but as they refused to
take Confederate money, and we were forbidden to plunder, we passed on,
feeling aggrieved, and went into camp a few miles beyond.

Having a curiosity to test the resources and hospitality of this
abundant country, I set out from camp, with two companions, for this
purpose. A walk of a mile brought us to the house of a widow with three
pretty daughters. They told us they had b