to get out and take a little exercise, but
that in accepting this privilege if any of them took advantage of it to
desert I would have to suffer for it, yet I would take the chances that
they would be fair to me. This they were, since none of them deserted.

[Illustration: COLONEL WILLIAM C. RAULSTON]

Before reaching Baltimore an amusing incident occurred that illustrates
a volunteer soldier's idea of discipline on joining the army. At one of
the stopping-places where my men were out walking on the platform,
Lieutenant-Colonel Newberry remarked that he noticed my men out at
every station, intimating that I was not holding them well in hand. I
replied that I thought it a hardship not to let them take some exercise,
the weather being cold, but that if he directed me not to allow them to
leave the cars I would carry out his instructions. At this he turned and
made no reply. A couple of Irishmen of my company overheard the
conversation, one of whom exclaimed: "I say, Lieutenant, if you say the
word we will belt hell out of him, so we will!" Ordering the men to get
in the car, I had great difficulty to refrain from laughing. If the
Colonel heard the remark he doubtless was amused at it; at any rate he
ignored it. He had a keen sense of the ludicrous, and no officer could
be more considerate of his men than he subsequently proved to be. When
the train conveying the regiment reached Baltimore, the sides of many of
the cars had been stripped of their covering, which had been used to
make fires en route. We finally reached the old Baltimore and Ohio
station in Washington at night, it being very cold. From there we
marched to Camp Stoneman, a cavalry camp of instruction across Potomac
Creek, where the regiment was drilled and put in shape for the campaign
that began in May.

Having had experience in a cavalry regiment and being familiar with
cavalry tactics, and also with the various details of camp duties, I was
able to suggest how my inexperienced men could be comfortable in camp,
as soon as we reached Camp Stoneman. The regiment was, in May, assigned
to Burnside's Ninth Corps, and joined the Army of the Potomac, after a
hard day's march, the afternoon of the second day of the battle of the
Wilderness. As soon as our regiment advanced into the woods, I was
selected to take command of a skirmish line that was to cover, as I
remember, the front of our brigade. I assumed that I was selected for
this duty, though only a second