om the
gold-striped Staff to the blue-striped Field Officer, and by the latter
whispered in confidence in the anxious ears of officers of the line, and
again transferred in increasing volume to the subs, and by them in
knowing confidence to curious privates, had it that the principal rebel
force would be hemmed in, in the Valley of the Shenandoah, by our
obtaining command of the Gaps, and then we would be nearest their
Capital in a direct line--we would compel them to fight us, where, when,
and how we pleased, or else beat them in a race to Richmond, and
then----. The reader must imagine happy results that could not
consistently be expected, while to gain the same destination over
equidistant and equally good roads, Strategy moved by comparatively slow
marches and easy halts, while Desperation strained every nerve, with
rattling batteries and almost running ranks.

"But, Lieutenant, if that's so," alluding to the purpose of their march,
"why are we halting here?"

"Our troops block up the roads, I suppose."

"We could march in the fields," rejoined the anxious private, "by the
road-side; they are open and firm."

"We'll see, Harry, in a day or two, what it all amounts to. May be the
'Anaconda' that is to smash out the rebellion, is making another turn,
or 'taking in a reef,' as the Colonel says."

"Well," rejoined the Private, "I have endeavored to book myself up, as
far as my advantages would allow, in our army movements; and the nearest
approach to anything like an anaconda, that I can see or hear of, is
that infernal Red-tape worm that is strangling the soul out of the army.
What inexcusable nonsense to attempt to apply to an immense army in time
of war, such as we have now in the field, the needless, petty
pigeon-hole details that regulated ten thousand men on a peace
establishment. And to carry them out, look how many valuable officers,
or officers who ought to be valuable, from the expense Uncle
Sam has been at to give them educational advantages, are doing
clerkly duty--that civilians, our business men, our accountants,
could as well, if not better, attend to--in the offices of the
Departments at Washington, in the Commissary and Quarter-Master's
Departments,--handling quills and cheese-knives instead of swords, and
never giving 'the villainous smell of saltpetre' the slightest chance
'to come betwixt the wind and their nobility.'"

Harry, at the time of his volunteering was an associate editor of a well