l
treatment only by the course he had adopted. Perhaps, if he had possessed
the requisite patience, he might have attained the same result by a less
repulsive and more noble policy.

The regiment remained in Washington about a fortnight. The capital was no
longer considered to be in danger. A large body of troops had been massed
in and around the city, and the rebels' boast that they would soon capture
Washington was no longer heeded. Fear and anxiety had given place to hope
and expectation. "On to Richmond!" was the cry sounded by the newspapers,
and repeated by the people. The army of newly-fledged soldiers was burning
with eagerness to be led against the rebels. "On to Richmond!" shouted
citizens and soldiers, statesmen and politicians. Some cursed and some
deprecated the cautious slowness of the old general who had never been
defeated.

"On to Richmond!" cried the boys in Tom's regiment, and none more
earnestly than he.

"Don't hurry old Scott. He knows what he is about. I know something about
this business, for I've seen old Scott where the bullets flew thicker'n
snow flakes at Christmas," was the oft-repeated reply of Hapgood, the
veteran of Company K.

The movement which had been so long desired and expected was made at last,
and the regiment struck its tents, and proceeded over Long Bridge into
Virginia. The first camp was at Shuter's Hill, near Alexandria.

"Now we are in for it," said Tom Somers, when the mess gathered in their
tent after the camp was formed. "I hope we shall not remain here long."

"Don't be in a hurry, my brave boy," said old Hapgood. "We may stop here a
month."

"I hope not."

"Don't hope anything about it, Tom. Take things as they come."

But the impatience of the soldier boy was soon relieved; for at daylight
on the morning of the 16th of July, the regiment was routed out, the tents
were struck, and at nine o'clock they took up the line of march to the
southward. It was "on to Richmond," in earnest, now, and merrily marched
the men, who little knew what trials and sufferings, what scenes of blood
and death, lay in their path.

The little colonel's command had been put in Franklin's brigade, which
formed a part of Heintzelman's division; but little did Tom or his
fellow-soldiers know of anything but their own regiment. The "sacred soil"
of Virginia seemed to be covered with Federal soldiers, and whichever way
he turned, columns of troops might be seen, all obedient to the one g