n. We had managed to conjure up some very
lonesome looking fires out of the wet wood lying about (fence rails were
not attainable here in the wilderness), and were engaged in a hot
dispute about where the next fighting was to be, which warmed and dried
us more than the fires did, when "the winter of our discontent" was made
"glorious summer," so to speak, by the news that the wagons had got up,
and they were going to issue rations. Tom Armistead made this startling
announcement in as bland, and matter of course a tone as if he were in
the habit of giving us something to eat _every_ day, which he was not,
by a great deal. Tom was the dearest fellow in the world, and the best
Commissary in the army, and we all loved him. Many a time when, in the
confusion of campaign, the wagon was empty, or was snowed in by an
avalanche of wagons, far in the rear, he could be seen struggling up to
the front with a bag of crackers, sugar, meat, anything that he had been
able to lay hands on, across his horse, so that the boys should not
starve entirely. Hunting us up through the woods, or along the battle
line, he would ride in among us with his load, and a beaming face, that
told how glad he was to have something for us. And when, as too often it
was, the whole Commissary business was "_dead busted_," our afflicted
Commissary would tell us there was nothing, with such a rueful visage,
that it made us sorry we did not have something to give him, and made us
feel our own emptiness all the more, that it seemed to afflict him so.

The present rations were quickly distributed, and as quickly devoured,
and not a man was foundered by over-eating! Then we sat around the fires
and discussed the news that had been gathered from various sources.

CHAPTER III

BATTLES OF SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE

It was just ten o'clock and each man was looking around for the dryest
spot to spread his blanket on, when a courier rode up, with pressing
orders for us to get instantly on the march. In a few moments, we were
tramping rapidly through the darkness, on a road that led, we knew not
whither. We were, as we found out afterwards, leading the great race,
that General Lee was making for Spottsylvania Court House to head off
Grant in his efforts to get out of the Wilderness in his "push for
Richmond." We were with the vanguard of the skillful movement, by which
Longstreet's Corps was marched entirely around Grant's left flank, to
seize the strong line