d the people
to prayer."

The next day the Confederate Congress met and passed the following
resolutions:

"We recognize the hand of the most high God, the King of Kings and Lord
of Lords, in the glorious victory with which he has crowned our armies
at Manassas, and that the people of these Confederate States are invited
by appropriate services on the ensuing Sabbath to offer up their united
thanksgiving and prayers for this mighty deliverance."

The losses in men were as follows: Union army, 3000; Confederates, 2000.
The latter captured 27 cannon, 1500 prisoners, an immense quantity of
small arms, ammunition, stores, etc.

I promptly laid aside my flint-lock musket and took a Springfield rifle.

I am often amused as I remember some of the thoughts that passed through
my mind, and some of the things I did on this momentous occasion. For
instance, we were ordered to "sleep on our arms" the night whose dawn
was to usher in the battle. I had heard a good deal about soldiers
obeying orders. I thought of "the boy who stood on the burning deck," so
when I laid down that night with old Mother Earth for a bed, I found
myself stretched out at full length on top of my musket. It was a little
rough, but the mere thought of being a soldier and "sleeping on my arms"
on the eve of battle made my bed feel as soft as a bed of roses. And
then the gun! It was an old flint-lock musket, minus the flint, and no
powder or ball. But I was at least a soldier and had a gun, and would
surely see the battle and could write home all about it. A soldier
seldom ever thinks that he will be among the slain; he may be wounded,
or taken prisoner, but it is always the other fellow that is going to be
killed.

CHAPTER III.

_From Bull Run to Seven Pines (Continued)._

"You have called us and we're coming, by Richmond's bloody tide
To lay us down, for freedom's sake, our brothers' bones beside."

The several battles around Richmond in the spring of 1862, viz., Seven
Pines, Mechanicsville, Beaver Dam, Malvern Hill, Gaines' Mill, I have
grouped under the head of Seven Pines.

The fall and winter months following the battle of Bull Run were spent
for the most part by both sides in recruiting their armies and getting
ready for a desperate struggle, which would inevitably come when spring
arrived the following year.

There were occasional raids and skirmishes, but no decisive battles were
fought until the following spring, except the