and I had come away without a blanket, trusting to a great coat which I thought would be sufficient for a summer campaign. Luckily, my father had come along by our quarters, and perceiving my condition, went out supplied my need by a contribution from a friend in the neighborhood. At the regulation hour, the members of the mess who were not detailed for guard duty--- some four of us--- crept into our tent, and arranged our blankets into a soft bed, laid down and fell into a hearty sleep which was only broken by reveille the next morning. This was my first night of a regular campaign. The next day we marched from the landing to Vanesville, about twenty miles--- halting an hour or so at Waterloo, then McCoys Tavern were we got our dinner--- I mean my comrades and myself, having no need and not very willing to try an experiment in the cooking for ourselves. The day was hot and portions of the road in deep sand. It was a great trial. We were in winter cloth uniform, with the most absurd helmet of thick jacked leather and covered with plumes. We carried besides, a knapsack, in which--- in my case--- I had packed a great coat, my newly acquired blanket, two or three shirts, stockings, etc� Among these articles I also had a pair of pumps, which I provided with the idea, that, after we had beaten the British army and saved Washington, Mr. Madison would very likely invite us to a Ball at the White House, and I wanted to be ready for it. The knapsacks must have weighed at least ten pounds. Then there was a Harper�s Ferry musket of fourteen pounds. Take our burden altogether, and we could not have been tramping on those sandy roads, under the broiling sun of August, with less than thirty pounds of weight upon us. But we bore it splendidly, toiling and sweating in a dense cloud of dust, drinking the muddy water of the little brooks which our passage over them disturbed, and taking all the discomforts of the rough experience with a cheerful heart and stout resolve. We joked at our afflictions, laughed at each other, and sang in the worst of time. The United Volunteers was the finest company in the regiment, about an hundred strong when in full array, but now counting about eighty effective men. These were the elite of the city--- several of them gentlemen of large fortunes. William Gilmor was one of them--- a merchant of high standing, who had so long been among the most distinguished of the bar, was another. It was what is called a crack company of the city, and composed of a class of men who are not generally supposed to be the best to endure fatigue, and yet there was no body of troops in all of Baltimore who were more ready for all service, more persistent in meeting and accomplishing the severest duty. To me personally labor and fatigue were nothing. I was innued to both by self-discipline, and had come to a philosophic conviction that both were essential to all enjoyments to life, and besides this is a bit of philosophy, I was lured by the romance of our enterprise into an oblivion of our hardships.
�The second day brought us to Vanesville, by the way, a town consisting of one house, on the top of the hill, where stage-passengers stopped for a change of horses on the road to Washington; and at early dawn on the next day--- Tuesday morning, the 23rd of August--- we resumed the road, and reached Bladensburg about five in the afternoon, having marched very slowly, with many halts during the day, waiting for orders from the commander- in-chief. Reports were coming to us every moment of the movements of the enemy. They had passed Marlborough, and were marching on Washington, but whether they were on the direct road to the city, or were coming by Bladensburg, was uncertain. Our movements depended somewhat upon them. General Winder, who commanded the army immediately in front of the enemy, and was retiring slowly before him, was advised of our march, and was sending frequent instructions to our commander. Of course those of us in the ranks knew nothing of these high maters. All that we could hear were the flying rumors of the hour, which were stirring enough. One of Winder�s videttes had come to us. He had a great story to tell. He was carrying orders to Stansbury, who was ahead of us, and fell in with a party of British Dragoons, from whom he fled at speed for his life. The country in Prince George is full of gates; the high roads often lie through cultivated field, without side fences to guard them, and every field is always entered through a gate which is always old and rickety, and swings to after your horse with a rapid sweep and a that threatens to take off his tail. One vidette, Mr. Floyd, known to us in Baltimore, told us he had been pursed several miles by four of these dragoons. He reported that the British army had a corps of cavalry with them, and that being splendidly mounted, as we saw he was, and having General Winder�s servant with him, he had escaped and got up to us. This was all true as he told it, except that he was mistaken, as we found out the next day when we joined Winder, in one important particular, and that was, that his pursuers were not British dragoons, but four members of the Georgetown cavalry who fell into the same mistake. They supposed him a British dragoon, straggling from his corps, and gave him chase, feeling sure from the direction they had pressed him to take, that they must soon drive him into our hands. It was only that they could not keep up with him that that they failed to witness that happy denoument. This report of cavalry in the enemies army, of course, furnished us, as green soldiers, with much occasion for remark and reflection.
We had a pleasant evening in camp in Bladensburg. Our tents were pitched on the slope of the hill by the town on the eastern side of the river, Stansbury�s brigade of the drafted militia were there, and Winder, with the rest of the army, which altogether perhaps counted nine thousand men, was not far off. He was falling back before the march of the enemy, who could not have been more than ten or twelve miles off.
�The afternoon towards sunset was mild and pleasant, and we had leisure to refresh ourselves by a bath in the Eastern Branch. Our camp was supplied with every comfort, and we did not depend on the United States for our supper, for Lige was sent out to forage, with money to purchase what he wanted. He returned before dark with a pair of chickens and a hand full of tallow candles, seemed to be an odd combination; and upon being interrogated by me on what it meant, he said found them under the flap of a tent in Stansbury�s brigade, and being perfectly sure they were stolen, he thought he would restore them to their proper owners. The stealing was probable enough, and we therefore had little scruple in consigning the fowl to Lige�s attention in the kitchen, and finding ourselves with an extra supply of candles, we indulged in the luxury of lighting three or four, which being fitted into the end of a bayonet point stuck in ground, gave an unusual splendor to the inside of our tent. The keg in which we kept our biscuit--- |
