ing a quartette of men overtook us carrying a man on their
shoulders. As they drew near us one of the forward pair stumbled and
fell, and down came the body into the mud with a swash. If the body was
not dead, the fall killed it, for it neither moved nor uttered a sound.
With a fearful objurgation they went on and left it, and we did not have
life enough left in us to make any investigation. It was like the case
of a man on the verge of drowning seeing others perishing without the
ability to help. It was a serious question whether we could pull
ourselves through or should be obliged to drop in our tracks, to be run
over and crushed or trampled to death, as many a poor fellow was that
night. We had not an ounce of strength, nor had any of the hundreds of
others in our condition, to bestow on those who could not longer care
for themselves. Here it was every man for himself. This night's
experience was a horrible nightmare.

It was long after daylight when we crawled out of those woods and
reached United States ford. Here a pontoon bridge had been thrown over,
and a double column of troops and a battery of artillery were crossing
at the same time. We pushed ourselves into the throng, as to which there
was no semblance of order, and were soon on the other side. On the top
of the bluff, some one hundred feet above the river, on our side, we
noticed a hospital tent, and we thought if we could reach that we might
find shelter and rest, for it was still raining and we were drenched to
the skin, and so cold that our faces were blue and our teeth chattered.
A last effort landed us at this hospital. Alas for our hopes! it was
crowded like sardines in a box with others who in like condition had
reached it before us. I stuck my head in the tent. One glance was
enough. The surgeon in charge, in answer to our mute appeal, said, "God
help you, boys; I cannot. But here is a bottle of whiskey, take a good
drink; it will do you good." We took a corking dose, nearly half the
bottle, and lay down, spoon fashion, my comrade and I, by the side of
that tent in the rain and slept for about an hour, until the stimulus of
the liquor passed off and the cold began again to assert itself, when we
had to start on again. I have never had any use for liquors in my life,
and the use of them in any form as a beverage I consider as nothing else
than harmful in the highest degree, yet I have always felt that this big
dose of whiskey saved my life. Could we