nstructed at the terminus of the
railroad from Fredericksburg, and was manned by an infantry company
acting as artillerists. Besides this force, permanently stationed at the
battery, and quartered near it, a company of infantry from military
headquarters was sent every evening to guard against a night attack. A
company called the "Tigers," took their turn at this service, and we
would gladly have dispensed with their "protection." Utterly
undisciplined, they were more dangerous to friends than to foes.
Mutinous and insubordinate, they were engaged in constant collisions
with each other and with the companies so unfortunate as to be quartered
near them; and their camp was a pandemonium. In addition to other
sources of quarrel and contention, several women (_vivandieres_, they
called themselves) followed the company. The patience of Gen. M.[2] who
commanded the division, was finally exhausted. He summoned the Captain
of the "Tigers" into his presence; and after severely reprimanding him
for the misconduct of his men, insisted that the "_vivandieres_" should
be sent away. The captain urged many reasons for keeping them; the chief
one being the good _moral effect_ of their presence! but the General was
inflexible. Even gallantry to the sex must be sacrificed to the truth;
and a proper regard for the latter demands the statement that a
reformation commenced with the departure of the women; and our friends
the "Tigers" eventually became well-behaved soldiers.

We passed many months of inglorious inactivity here until the spring of
1862, when the line of the Potomac was abandoned. While the Federal
forces had remained comparatively quiet in this part of the Confederacy,
they had achieved many important successes elsewhere. Fort Donelson, on
the Cumberland River, and Roanoke Island in North Carolina had been
captured, with large garrisons; and New Orleans and Savannah were
threatened. General Joseph E. Johnston, who at the time commanded the
Army of Northern Virginia, determined to fall back to the line of the
Rappahannock; and all the batteries on the Potomac were abandoned
between the 8th and 10th of March, 1862; the guns being removed to other
quarters.

The monotonous service at the batteries had tried the patience of all
who were attached to them; and we rejoiced at the prospect of more
active duty. The reverses sustained by the Confederate arms were not to
be disguised, nor were our convictions of great danger to the cou