tisfaction of
officially receiving them with a like escort from our regiment,
commanded by First Lieutenant J. D. Laciar, of Company G. The ceremony
was to us a joyous and impressive occasion. It took place in the
presence of General Alfred Sully, temporarily commanding the division,
and staff, and our brigade officers. The two escorts were drawn up,
facing each other. The order of Major-General Howard, above referred to,
was read. This was followed by a little speech from General Sully, in
which we came in for some more praise; then both escorts presented arms,
whilst their color-bearer transferred the colors to ours, and the
ceremony was over. A happier escort never marched than was ours bearing
home those restored colors.

The weather was now getting very cold, and we set about making ourselves
as comfortable as possible in camp. The men were allowed to fix up their
tents as best they could without much regard for architectural beauty
or regularity. Some of them dug cellars four to five feet deep, made
puncheon floors,--that is, floors made of split logs smoothed off and
laid the flat side up,--whilst the sides were made of logs plastered up
with mud. Mud fireplaces were made with old barrels for chimneys. The
roofs were canvas, of course, but fairly waterproof. A favorite bit of
horse-play of the men at this time was to watch when the occupants of
some tent were having a good time, and smoke them out by throwing a wet
blanket over the top of their barrel chimney. In about a second the
smoke would be almost dense enough to suffocate, and every fellow would
pile out and hunt for the culprit. Woe be unto him if they found him. A
favorite ruse on the part of the culprit was to plunge into his tent and
be placidly snoring when the victims began their hunt. Sometimes the
simulation would be too sonorous, and give him away, and then he had
trouble on hand for the next hour. The ingenuity of these sons of Belial
in their pranks was beyond description. I have laughed until absolutely
exhausted many a time. How did I know so much about them? Well, I had
two of the liveliest of these boys in my office as clerks, and, as they
were generally in the fun, I was kept posted, and to tell the truth, as
long as it did not seriously transgress, and there was fun in it, I knew
nothing about it "officially." Often have I seen these boys put up a job
on some fellow quietly sleeping, by smoking out his next-door neighbors
and then directin