s the south, for Post No.
2.

The posts were perhaps thirty rods apart; three men being stationed on
each post, and one sergeant or corporal, in charge of every three posts.
The first three men, as numbered in the ranks before starting from the
rendezvous, to take the first post, the next three the second, &c. The
orders were for one man to remain at the post, while the other two were
to move to and from the post, in opposite directions, a certain
distance, or perhaps farther, occasionally, if the sentinel from the
posts adjoining, should fail to meet him at the end of his beat, thereby
keeping up communication throughout the entire line. The men to have
their pieces loaded, and bayonets fixed, with particular instructions to
be on the alert, to build no fires, light no matches, smoke, nor indulge
in loud conversation.

The line of pickets ran nearly north and south, the first "support"
being on the right of the line, commenced in the vicinity of Bailey's
Cross Roads, and connected with the second "support," at Post No. 1. The
line of our "support" ran from the main road, towards the railroad, the
distance between the two, at this place, being perhaps one and a half
miles, our "support" reaching two-thirds of the way to the railroad,
there to connect with the third, and so on to the last "support," our
regiment guarding a line of several miles in length. Our path led over
level spaces, up and down hills steep as the roof of a house, along
side hills where it required the greatest care to preserve our
equilibrium, through tangled thickets of bush and brier, and over every
conceivable obstacle in the shape of stump, stone, bog, &c. The place
falling to my lot, to help guard for the next forty-eight hours, was
Post No. 7, just in the edge of a grove of small evergreen trees, on the
side of a hill, overlooking what must have been once a large farm,
situated in a valley opening to the south, and enclosed on three sides
by woods. Our post was on the eastern side of this clearing; the hill on
the opposite side, rising to about the same height, was covered with a
heavy growth of timber, affording a good shelter for sharpshooters, if
they had happened to have been in the vicinity, and had been disposed to
annoy us. The distance across this clearing being about one-third of a
mile, a good distance for rifle practice.

This clearing was perhaps fifty rods in width, and nearly one-third of a
mile in length, bounded on the north