in the rear, is like a fish out of the water; he
feels that he is not in his place. Seeing no other mode of obtaining a
release, we, at length, began detaining the different detachments who
were proceeding to join their regiments, with a view of forming a
battalion of them; but, by the time that we had collected a
sufficient number for that purpose, we received an order, from
head-quarters, to join the army; when, after a few days' forced
marches, we had, at length, the happiness of overtaking our division a
short distance beyond the town of Aire. The battle of Orthes was the
only affair of consequence that had taken place during our absence.

We remained stationary, near Aire, until the middle of March, when the
army was again put in motion.

On the morning of the 19th, while we were marching along the road,
near the town of Tarbes, we saw what appeared to be a small piquet of
the enemy, on the top of a hill to our left, looking down upon us,
when a company of our second battalion was immediately sent to
dislodge them. The enemy, however, increased in number, in proportion
to those sent against them, until not only the whole of the second,
but our own, and the third battalion were eventually brought into
action; and still we had more than double our number opposed to us;
but we, nevertheless, drove them from the field with great slaughter,
after a desperate struggle of a few minutes, in which we had eleven
officers killed and wounded. As this fight was purely a rifle one, and
took place within sight of the whole army, I may be justified in
giving the following quotation from the author of "Twelve Years'
Military Adventure," who was a spectator, and who, in allusion to this
affair, says, "Our rifles were immediately sent to dislodge the French
from the hills on our left, and our battalion was ordered to support
them. Nothing could exceed the manner in which the ninety-fifth set
about the business.... Certainly I never saw such skirmishers as the
ninety-fifth, now the rifle brigade. They could do the work much
better and with infinitely less loss than any other of our best light
troops. They possessed an individual boldness, a mutual understanding,
and a quickness of eye, in taking advantage of the ground, which,
taken altogether, I never saw equalled. They were, in fact, as much
superior to the French _voltigeurs_, as the latter were to our
skirmishers in general. As our regiment was often employed in
supporting them