way we were to follow. Our expectation
that, notwithstanding all our forced marching, we were destined to
return home without getting sight of the armed enemy was partially
dissipated; and now that a live fighting man had got us in hand, there
were few of us, it may well be supposed, who were any longer "spilin'
for a fight." The veterans regarded our grey suits curiously, and
advised us to exchange them for Uncle Sam's blue before we went into
action; otherwise, we should most likely be taken for Grey Backs, (as
the rebels were sometimes called by the Union soldiers from the color
of their dress), and be shot by our comrades. This was not an
over-pleasant suggestion; still, in the absence of present danger, we
tried to "borrow no trouble".

General Meade, in his report of the Battle of Gettysburg, makes the
following allusion to our arrival, though he erroneously makes
Boonesboro' instead of Waynesboro' the place where we first joined
him:--

"It is my duty as well as my pleasure to call attention to the
earnest efforts at co-operation on the part of Major-General D. N.
Couch, commanding the Department of the Susquehanna, and
particularly to his advance of 4,000 men under Brigadier-General W.
F. Smith, who joined me at Boonesboro' just prior to the withdrawal
of the Confederate army."

We pitched our tents in a pleasant hillside grove, where we rested the
next day, employing our leisure in putting our arms in order. The
morning report gave 519 officers and men as present and fit for the
duty in the Twenty-Third regiment; the strongest muster the regiment
could show during the campaign. Many of us got passes to go to
Waynesboro' where, notwithstanding the rebels had, a few days before,
seized all they could lay hands on, we found pretty much all we wanted;
and having just come "out of the wilderness", we wanted pretty much
everything that soldiers can use at once, or can carry away with them.
The Little Antietam still kept us company, and bathing in its waters
greatly refreshed our wearied limbs.

_Friday, 10th._--Ordered out on a reconnoissance with the New York
Seventy-First. The column moved out on the Waynesboro' and Greencastle
pike, and took position on a bare hill some two or three miles east of
Waynesboro'. Here we stacked arms and roasted in the sun all day; at
night returned to camp.

_Saturday, 11th._--Rested again, though we were on the _qui vive_ all
the afternoon for a forwa