an who was to
relieve him, he laid the forefinger of his right hand on the fellow's
breast, and looking him square in the eyes, spoke thus:

"It's the ar-r-dhers of the car-r-parral that the sintry stand here,"
(indicating,) "and the car-r-parral's ar-r-dhers will be obeyed. D'ye
moind that, now?"

I had stepped to the side of McGrath while he was talking, to give him
my moral support, at least, and fixed my eyes on the mutineer. He
looked at us in silence a second or two, and then, with some muttering
about the corporal being awful particular, finally said he could stand
it if the rest could, assumed his post at the top of the bank, and the
matter was ended. The storm blew over before midnight and the weather
cleared up. In the morning we had a satisfying soldier breakfast, and
when relieved at 9 o'clock marched back to camp with the others of the
old guard, all in good humor, and with "peace and harmony prevailing."
But I always felt profoundly grateful to grand old McGrath for his
staunch support on the foregoing occasion; without it, I don't know
what could have been done.

CHAPTER VII.

BOLIVAR. JULY, AUGUST, AND SEPTEMBER, 1862.

On July 17 our brigade, then under the command of Gen. L. F. Ross, left
Jackson for Bolivar, Tennessee, a town about twenty-eight miles
southwest of Jackson, on what was then called the Mississippi Central
Railroad. (Here I will observe that the sketch of the regiment before
mentioned in the Illinois Adjutant General's Reports is wrong as to the
date of our departure from Jackson. It is inferable from the statement
in the Reports that the time was June 17, which really was the date of
our arrival there from Bethel.) We started from Jackson at about four
o'clock in the morning, but marched only about eight miles when we were
brought to an abrupt halt, caused by the breaking down, under the
weight of a cannon and its carriage, of an ancient Tennessee bridge
over a little stream. The nature of the crossing was such that the
bridge simply had to be rebuilt, and made strong enough to sustain the
artillery and army wagons, and it took the balance of the day to do it.
We therefore bivouacked at the point where we stopped until the next
morning. Soon after the halt a hard rain began falling, and lasted all
afternoon. We had no shelter, and just had to take it, and "let it
rain." But it was in the middle of the summer, the weather was hot, and
the boys stood around, some crowing like