ul structure behind them, to prevent pursuit."

This engagement, while otherwise of but little importance, was valuable
because it taught the enemy that the Federals could use the cavalry arm
of the service as effectively as their infantry.

All accounts agree that Corporal Glazier acquitted himself very
creditably in his first battle. After the action was over he accompanied
his comrades to the field and contributed his best aid towards the care
of the wounded and the unburied dead. Such an experience was full of
painful contrast to the quiet scenes of home and school life to which he
had hitherto been accustomed. In his history, as with thousands of other
brave boys who missed death through many battles, this period was the
sharp prelude to a long experience of successive conflicts, of weary
marches seasoned with hunger, of prison starvation and the many
privations which fall to the lot of the soldier, all glorified when
given freely in the defence of liberty and country.

CHAPTER XII.

FIRST BATTLE OF BRANDY STATION.

The sentinel's lonely round.--General Pope in command of the
army.--Is gunboat service effective?--First cavalry battle of
Brandy Station.--Under a rain of bullets.--Flipper's
orchard.--"Bring up the brigade, boys!"--Capture of Confederate
prisoners.--Story of a revolver.--Cedar Mountain.--Burial of the
dead rebel.--Retreat from the Rapidan.--The riderless
horse.--Death of Captain Walters.

The Harris Light now entered upon exciting times, and Corporal Glazier,
ever at the post of duty, had little leisure for anything unconnected
with the exigencies of camp and field. At that period the men of both
armies were guilty of the barbarous practice of shooting solitary
sentinels at their posts, and no man went on guard at night without
feeling that an inglorious death might await him in the darkness, while
deprived of the power to strike a defensive blow, or to breathe a
prayer.

On the twenty-second of July, 1862, a new commander was assigned the
Army of Virginia in the person of General John Pope. General McClellan
had lost the confidence of the Northern people by his continued
disasters, and was at length succeeded by General Pope, who was placed
at the head of the united commands of Fremont, Banks, McDowell (and
later in August), Burnside and Fitz-John Porter. General Pope commenced
his duties with a ringing address to the army under his command. Among
other th