owards the woods on our right and left,
the sentinels for which were furnished in due proportion from my
own and the company of the Seventy-First. The cavalry vidette
reported that the rebels could be heard moving about all night.

At daylight we stood to arms, and the cavalry were sent out as far
as the second hill, but found no enemy in sight.

I learned from a man living just beyond our line that the rebels in
force, of all arms, had passed, the afternoon before (the 11th), in
two columns, one keeping the road, and the other following the
fields in a line parallel with the road. From this and other
information obtained, I have no doubt that the main body of the
rebels were last night in and around Hagerstown, which is about
four miles from where our pickets were posted. At six o'clock this
morning I was ordered to draw in the pickets and return to the
column, which we found lying in the road where we rejoined it.

In closing this brief report, Colonel, I beg leave to say that
while I never had a doubt as to the behavior of the Twenty-Third as
a regiment, I was unprepared to meet with the cheerful obedience to
orders which sent individuals into almost isolated positions where
they had every reason to suppose that the enemy was within a few
rods of them, and where the darkness was so intense as to limit the
vision to a space of a few feet.

Very respectfully,

C. E. GOLDTHWAIT,
Capt. Co. "B", 23d Reg. N.G.S.N.Y.,
Com'g Pickets.

Recalling to mind all the circumstances of the case, there is something
in the thought of that night's bivouac which is awe-inspiring;--three
or four thousand men massed in a field sleeping; their stacked arms
standing over them like sentinels; a thick fog encompassing them, and
affording cover to an enemy to approach unseen; that enemy within easy
striking distance, at bay, and watching doubtless for an opportunity to
strike a sudden blow. The night passed quietly however, nothing being
heard of the enemy, and we slept pretty well with the ghostly fog for
our coverlet.

_Sunday, 12th._--About six o'clock, after breakfasting very soberly
and contentedly on hard tack and water, we got in motion again. A
countermarch of a mile brought us to Lettersburg, a poor village of a
dozen indifferent houses, through which we passed the evening before
almost without noticing it. Here we turned off to