rters, and in regal style amid flowers and fruits he received
the homage of the citizens and soldiers. The remaining regiments of the
brigade were stationed in a lovely grove half way between the town and
the picket line. They lounged in the shade of their beautiful camp, or
strolled to the village or to the picket line on the Antietam. They
purchased from the people fruit and bread, apple butter and other
luxuries, enjoying a pleasant respite from labors, while the Forty-ninth
guarded the town and the Seventy-seventh the river. But notwithstanding
all the pleasures of this bright episode in our campaign, the boys were
not without a source of annoyance.

Soon after our arrival at Waynesboro, we were joined by a large division
of New York and Pennsylvania militia, under our old commander General W.
F. Smith, who still held a prominent place in the affections of the
boys. The militia was composed mostly of young gentlemen who had left
their places behind the counter or at the desk, for the double purpose
of lending their aid to their country in its hour of need, and of
enjoying a month of what they hoped would be amateur soldiering.

On the evening of their arrival, they were all complaining bitterly of
the terrible marches they had endured, and swore they would shoot the
general if they ever got into a fight. They had marched all the way from
Harrisburgh, to which point they had been brought in cars, at the rate
of from eight to fifteen miles a day! In addition to the severe marches,
they had been subjected to great privations; many of them had not tasted
any _butter_ for more than a week, and nearly all declared that they had
absolutely nothing to eat for several days. The writer, who listened to
these grievous complaints from some who had been his friends in civil
life, pointed to their trains of wagons loaded with boxes of hard bread.
"What," replied the militia-men, "You don't expect us to eat that hard
tack do you?"

These regiments of militia were undisciplined and unaccustomed to the
hard fare of the soldier's life, and the majority of the men took to
plundering the inhabitants of the neighboring country, and perpetrating
other depredations equally dishonorable in the eyes of the old soldiers.
As the veterans constituted the picket and the guard of the town, and
were intrusted to guard many of the houses of the citizens outside of
the village, they found great annoyance in attempting to resist the
incursions of