vy weight to carry, so obliging
were the wagon drivers, so easy in many regiments the Confederate
discipline, that overcoats, blankets, and, in very many instances
haversacks, had been consigned before starting to the friendly care of
the wagons in the rear. The troops marched light, and in a good humour.
True, Old Jack seemed bent on getting there--wherever "there" was--in a
tremendous hurry. Over every smooth stretch the men were double-timed,
and there was an unusual animus against stragglers. There grew, too, a
moral certitude that from the ten minutes' lawful rest in each hour at
least five minutes was being filched. Another and still more certain
conclusion was that the wagon train was getting very far behind.
However, the morning was still sweet, and the column, as a whole,
cheerful. It was a long column--the Stonewall Brigade, three brigades of
Loring's, five batteries, and a few cavalry companies; eight thousand,
five hundred men in all.

Mid-day arrived, and the halt for dinner. Alas for the men without
haversacks! They looked as though they had borne all the burdens of the
march. There was hunger within and scant sympathy without. "Didn't the
damned fools know that Old Jack always keeps five miles ahead of wagon
trains and hell fire?" "Here, Saunders! take these corn pones over to
those damned idiots with the compliments of Mess No. 4. We know that
they have Cherrystone oysters, canvas-back ducks, terrapin, and peach
brandy in their haversacks, and that they meant to ask us to join them.
So unfortunate!"

The cavalry marched on, the artillery marched on, the infantry marched
on. The bright skies subtly changed. The blue grew fainter; a haze,
white, harsh, and cold, formed gradually, and a slight wind began to
blow. The aster and goldenrod, the dried ironweed and sumach, the red
rose hips and magenta pokeberry stalks looked dead enough now, dead and
dreary upon the weary, weary road. The men sang no more; the more weakly
shivered. Before long the sky was an even greyish-white, and the wind
had much increased. Coming from the northwest, it struck the column in
the face; moreover, it grew colder and colder. All types shivered now,
the strong and the weak, the mounted officer and the leg-weary private,
the men with overcoats, and the men without. The column moved slower and
slower, all heads bent before the wind, which now blew with violence. It
raised, too, a blinding dust. A curt order ran down the lines for l