e men
provided themselves with horses, which they took out of barns by the
road-side. The reveille as usual sounded at an early hour (three A.M.)
the next morning and we marched to White House Landing, reaching there
at eleven. The next day the division took up their line of march and
marched to Hampton through a heavy rain storm and mud knee deep.
Thence by boat they proceeded to Portsmouth, reaching their old camps
on the afternoon of the 14th.

This raid in history is called the "Blackberry Raid," there being no
end of blackberries, of the most luscious kind. It was during this
raid that a new Chaplain, (Charles Dixon, of the Eighth Conn. Vols.,)
reported for duty. There seemed to be at first serious objections,
both among the officers and men, to our having a chaplain, but they
were soon dismissed; for he was one of those rare men whom all learned
to love, and his bravery in battle and southern prisons won him a good
name. On our return to Portsmouth, through a special order, a
Regimental Band was organized, which grew to be a most excellent one,
and added not a little to our military standing.

CAMP TENNANT.

July 15th, 16th, and 17th, was spent in fixing up our camp. But the
19th, 20th, and 21st was spent entirely in _trying_ to have a review.
The first day we marched two miles, stood in a broiling sun for two
hours, and then returned to camp. The next day the same performance
was gone through with and no reviewing officer came. Finally, on the
last day, just as General Foster got within a few rods of us the rain
came down in torrents, and continued till General Foster went away.
The rain stopped at five, and as the men were all ready for the review
it was agreed that the ceremony should be gone through with by Colonel
Burnham acting as reviewing officer, and Major Pasco taking the
command. From this time until the ninth of September there was but
little to attract attention, except the general routine of parades,
picket and police duty. The regiment therefore had a little time of
rest.

On the 30th of July, Colonel C.H. Prentice, J.G. Rathbun, J.A. Case,
and J.S. Brooks, of Hartford, made a visit to the regiment. As nearly
the entire regiment were acquainted with them, they were _very_
welcome, and we presume they enjoyed their visit, especially the day
that they visited the outposts, a distance of seven miles from camp,
when one of those southern rain-storms came up, and they got a
thorough soaking. This