to have the matter
thoroughly investigated."

"Did they intimate any opinion as to what we ought to do?" inquired the
Adjutant.

"Not a word. In that respect they say just as they did before they were
placed in close confinement, that it is a case in which each man must
act for himself. They are willing to shoulder the responsibility of
their own acts, and were very indignant when they heard that Pigey had
ordered the other Brigade under arms, and two pieces of artillery to be
trained upon our camp, as if the whole Regiment was guilty of mutiny,
when there was not at the same time a more quiet or orderly Regiment in
camp."

"They understand," remarked the Adjutant, "however, why that was done.
The General must have something to justify this unusually harsh
treatment. A charge of simple disobedience of orders would not do it, so
he charges them with mutiny, and trumps up this apprehension and parade
to appear consistent. The Lieutenant-Colonel anticipated it, I know. I
heard him say, while under simple arrest, that he believed that after
three o'clock they would be placed in close confinement, and on the
strength of it some letters were sent by a civilian giving full details.
Well, I am glad that they are in good spirits."

"In the very best," replied the Captain, "although the General starts as
if he intended giving them a tough through. The Sibley that they were
turned into late last night, was put up over ground so wet that you
couldn't make a track upon it without it would fill with water, and the
Lieutenant-Colonel had to sleep upon this ground with a single blanket,
as it was late when his servant Charlie came to the guard with his roll
of blankets, and the General would not permit him to pass. In
consequence he awoke this morning chilled, wet through, and with a fair
start for a high fever. And then they are denied writing material,
books, even a copy of the Regulations. The General relented
sufficiently, to tell an aid to inform them, that they might correspond
with their families if they would submit the correspondence first to
inspection at Division Head-quarters; to which they replied--that 'the
General might insult them, but could not compel them to humiliate their
families.' No one is permitted to see them unless by special permission
of the General."

"And when I saw those three guards to-day pacing about that Sibley,"
excitedly spoke the Virginia Captain, "I felt like mounting a
cracker-box in camp