arried out, not quite to
the satisfaction of his own eager and daring officers.

I recall one of these enterprises, out of which we extracted a good deal
of amusement; it was baptized the Battle of the Clothes-Lines. A white
company was out scouting in the woods behind the town, with one of my
best Florida men for a guide; and the captain sent back a message that
he had discovered a Rebel camp with twenty-two tents, beyond a creek,
about four miles away; the officers and men had been distinctly seen,
and it would be quite possible to capture it. Colonel Rust at once
sent me out with two hundred men to do the work, recalling the original
scouts, and disregarding the appeals of his own eager officers. We
marched through the open pine woods, on a delightful afternoon, and met
the returning party. Poor fellows! I never shall forget the longing eyes
they cast on us, as we marched forth to the field of glory, from which
they were debarred. We went three or four miles out, sometimes halting
to send forward a scout, while I made all the men lie down in the long,
thin grass and beside the fallen trees, till one could not imagine that
there was a person there. I remember how picturesque the effect was,
when, at the signal, all rose again, like Roderick Dhu's men, and the
green wood appeared suddenly populous with armed life. At a certain
point forces were divided, and a detachment was sent round the head of
the creek, to flank the unsuspecting enemy; while we of the main body,
stealing with caution nearer and nearer, through ever denser woods,
swooped down at last in triumph upon a solitary farmhouse,--where the
family-washing had been hung out to dry! This was the "Rebel camp"!

It is due to Sergeant Greene, my invaluable guide, to say that he had
from the beginning discouraged any high hopes of a crossing of bayonets.
He had early explained that it was not he who claimed to have seen the
tents and the Rebel soldiers, but one of the officers,--and had pointed
out that our undisturbed approach was hardly reconcilable with the
existence of a hostile camp so near. This impression had also pressed
more and more upon my own mind, but it was our business to put the thing
beyond a doubt. Probably the place may have been occasionally used for
a picket-station, and we found fresh horse-tracks in the vicinity, and
there was a quantity of iron bridle-bits in the house, of which no clear
explanation could be given; so that the armed men may