aster, and who
knew that an unthinking public sometimes measured loyalty by success?

"Later in the day our regiment--the 'Harris Light Cavalry'--lost a
squadron. Most of them were killed.

"In the deepening twilight we charged the enemy just as they were
forming for a similar attack on us. They were compelled to halt, and
Pope was thus enabled to discover their position and arrange for the
next day's defence.

"On the night of the thirtieth, the enemy occupied the battle-field and
buried the dead of both armies. And thus it was that Bull Run again ran
red with patriot blood and witnessed the retreat of the Union
battalions.

"By what strange fatality General Pope was allowed to struggle on alone
against an army twice the size of the Federal force, has not been
satisfactorily explained. One is almost tempted to believe, with
astrologists, that baleful stars sometimes preside with malign influence
over the destinies of battles, as they are said to do over individuals
and nations."

After the battle of Manassas, the Harris Light Cavalry was so reduced in
numbers that it was ordered into camp at Hall's Hill, near Washington,
with a view of recruiting its wasted strength and equipment. They
remained at that point until November, when they were again moved
forward to form the principal picket line along the front, prior to the
Federal disaster at Fredericksburg.

Burnside, having strongly secured the mountain passes in the
neighborhood, in order to conceal from Lee his real object, made a
_feint_ in the direction of Gordonsville; but the keen eye of the
Confederate generalissimo penetrated his true design and took measures
to defeat its accomplishment. Upon the eighth of this month, a lively
encounter between the Harris Light and a detachment of Confederate
cavalry resulted in the defeat of the latter, and soon after, the
regiment joined the main army.

As all know, the battle of Fredericksburg was fought and lost during the
three days intervening between the thirteenth and sixteenth of December.
Burnside's gallant army, in the midst of darkness, rain and tempestuous
wind, came reeling back from a conflict of terrible ferocity and
fatality. Six times in one day Meagher's gallant Irishmen were literally
hurled against Marye's Heights, a point of almost impregnable strength,
and which, even if carried, would still have exposed them to the
commanding fire of other and stronger Confederate positions.

Twenty times had