1862. we were drenched to the skin. This return march of eight miles was made in one hour and fifty minutes. extraordinarily good time for a regiment marching in column, and will be recollected by the participants for that, if for nothing else. It was a great day for the "ponies," as it was they who set the pace. The average speed of a regiment on the march is from two to two and a half miles per hour. This speed includes such delays as occur from obstructions in the road, caused generally by streams that are not bridged. It sometimes happens that a speed of three miles per hour, and occasionally three and a half miles, is attained under special circumstances. In the march from Newtown, just recorded, the rate of speed exceeded four miles per hour; a very exceptional case. The manner of marching was in fours, and by what is known as 'route step;" that is, "go as you please." The men were generally in step, because it was easier, as everybody knows. You were at liberty to carry your gun, knapsack, blankets, ammunition, etc., as best pleased yourself. Three to five days' rations were often carried in the haversack. In the last part of the war, to have had issued to you for three days such a quantity and variety of rations as was given you for one day at this time would have made a man think he was preparing for Thanksgiving day. The machinery necessary for providing an army as large as the Union army with daily rations seemed to us the most wonderful of the various responsibilities that occupied the attention of the government. The occasions were rare when the soldier worried himself about the matter. Of course it did happen occasionally that he was forced to put up with short commons, as in cases where forced marches were suddenly made, or where supplies were cut off by raids of the enemy. In instances where the full ration was not issued, it was the custom of the government to commute the difference, paying the sum so realized to each company, which fund was known as the "company fund," and which was held by the captain, who was allowed to draw therefrom for such purposes as, in his judgment, were necessary for the comfort of his men. The rations issued the first year of the war were good, and little cause for complaint ex 1862. isted, as a rule. Later, when the exigencies of the service prevented their prompt delivery, hardtack, from exposure to the weather, was frequently ornamented with a border of green, and occasionally with maggots or weevils. Coffee and pork came in for their share of these diminutive specimens of animal life. As we advanced in our education and experience as soldiers, a small matter of this kind ceased to have a disturbing influence in our daily life. Hardtack was a nutritious article of diet, and though soft bread was occasionally issued, old soldiers preferred the former, not only for its compactness, but for its sustaining and satisfying qualities. When it left the oven it was uniformly good, as it was uniformly hard. Sunday, The chaplain preached a rattling sermon on the evils of secession, in front of the court-house. Notice having been given out to the towns-people that he was to preach, advantage was taken by some of them to be present and listen to a "Yankee" preacher. An opportunity was thus afforded the chaplain of airing his eloquence, with which he was highly gifted, on these degenerate sons of Virginia. St. Patrick's day without a procession in honor of the man who drove snakes out of Ireland is a deprivation we were unused to. What a terrible thing is war! We were now in a part of the country where an "F.F.V." was a bigger man than St. Patrick. Monday, For real thoroughbred aristocracy, the "First Families of Virginia" can lay over, or think they can, all the "blue-bloods" of the North or South. They have a well-grounded opinion of their superiority to other mortals in this world, with anticipations of a similar rank in the next. Perhaps they expect, on announcing their names at the gates of Paradise, that St. Peter will doff his cowl with becoming humility, and lead them to the seats already reserved about the throne for people whose blood is of the ultra-marine hue. In their opinion, to bear the label "F.F.V." confers a distinction that no honor can excel. It is a brand of aristocracy too choice to be the reward of mere wealth. As a rule they were persons of culture and refinement, and took great pride and pleasure in dispensing a generous though ruinous hospitality. They looked upon 1862. themselves as the nobility of the land, and prior to the war, with abundance of means, and numerous slaves to do their bidding, many of them led ideal lives. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the breaking up of such an existence should develop an unnatural animosity toward the government. It was impossible to live as they did, in the dazzling rays of external splendor, without exciting the unreasoning enmity of their less fortunate neighbors, who took advantage of our presence to retaliate. It happened after we crossed the river into Virginia, that, knowing little about them, we sought every opportunity of exciting mirth or provoking ridicule at their weaknesses. As we became acquainted with them, we were ready to believe them to be generous, brave, and attractive in manners, except when their tempers were excited, as against the North, and then they were rabid and unreasonable. We soon learned that every ill-clad ignorant specimen on the roadside was not an "F.F.V." We also learned that their less fortunate neighbors took every opportunity of maligning them, and the stories told us of the terrible things they were doing had to be taken with a good deal of allowance, otherwise we might have done them injustice. 1862. Tuesday, CHAPTER III. COMPANIES B and K, retained in town for duty while the rest of the regiment prepared to go into camp, an order having been received transferring the Thirteenth to General Abercrombie's brigade. During the day we called on our old associates of Hamilton's brigade and bade them good-by. General Shields with his division of 10,000 men passed through Winchester to-day and made a good show. Marched out of town about two miles; pitched tents Wednesday, in sight of the camps of the Second and Twelfth MassaMarch 19. chusetts regiments. We then marched to the camps of the regiments in Abercrombie's brigade, that we might see them, and let them see us. The new brigade was composed of the Twelfth Massachusetts, Ninth New York (Eighty-third Vols.), the Twelfth and Sixteenth Indiana regiments. Whatever may have been their opinion of us, we were favorably impressed with our new associates. We thus began an association with the Twelfth Massachusetts and Ninth New York regiments that lasted during the rest of our service, and with whom we shared a good many hardships and dangers as time rolled on. It snowed and hailed last night, and to-day it rained, Thursday, so we were relieved of drills and dress parade. We were March 20. surprised to find such weather as this in Virginia. It looked like an infringement on New England's weather patent. Friday, Marched with the brigade in an easterly direction, ten miles, toward Berryville, and went into camp in the woods about two miles short of that town. It rained hard nearly all day, and it was dark before we halted. Building fires with wet, green wood required a deal more of Christian patience than most of us possessed, to refrain from swearing. Some |