behind his piece,
ready to seize arms instantly on an alarm. No fires were built, no loud
talking allowed. It was like the crouching of a tiger making ready to
spring upon its prey. These hints of the proximity of the enemy were
quite enough to satisfy our curiosity on the subject, particularly as
the Twenty-Third had the right of the line. Still we stretched
ourselves for sleep without alarm, though not without emotion, and
perhaps, anxiety. A few rods off, in a hollow of the field, a cloud of
fog lay along the ground--its ominous grey just visible in the
deepening twilight--and it was plainly creeping up to envelop us in its
chilly arms. The night bade fair to be a foul one--to use a
hibernicism--and none of us coveted the post of the picket in those
black woods in front of us. But some one had to perform that trying
duty; and it fell to the lot of Company "B" of the Twenty-Third to be
detailed with others to the service, the command of the detachment
being entrusted to Captain Goldthwait. The delicacy and danger of this
service are well told in the words of the captain commanding:--

Cavetown, Md., July 12th, 1863.

COLONEL:--

In compliance with your orders I left the bivouac of the regiment
on the Hagerstown road beyond Lietersburg last evening, and
reported to General Knipe for picket duty. Upon filing into the
road we found a company of the Seventy-First, N.Y., and a squad of
the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry awaiting us. Reporting to the
General we took the right of the Seventy-First, and with the
cavalry in advance moved out on the Hagerstown road across a stone
bridge to a point designated on the diagram by a haystack, at which
point, by direction of the General, the reserve was stationed.
After giving me instructions as to the direction in which he wished
the line of pickets extended, and orders to hold the point to the
latest possible moment, and under no circumstances to lose the
bridge in our rear, the General returned to the brigade, and I
proceeded to post the picket line.

The cavalry in the mean time had pushed forward on the road to hill
(No. 1 on the diagram) when they encountered a vidette of the
enemy's cavalry, which they drove from the position.

The hill being an excellent point for observation, a vidette of our
cavalry was posted at that point. A chain of infantry pickets was
thrown out on either flank t