dified secondarily the tone of our spirits and made us
jubilant, without, however, diluting our eagerness to be seen marching
up Broadway with firm step to the rescue of our own dishonored
metropolis. During the remainder of the afternoon this news was the
staple of our talk, and we chafed to be off at once. Some of the
regiments appeared to be in possession of specially gladdening news;
for they filled the camp with cheering and hilarious singing. This
spirit was contagious, and a remarkably buoyant feeling quickly
overspread the whole encampment. But

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley;"

and like sensible men we put not our trust in princes. Accordingly the
opportunity of getting a fresh supply of delicacies being presented,
we availed ourselves of it precisely as if we understood that we were
to resume pursuit of the enemy on the morrow. Boonsboro' was only some
four miles distant, and men were detailed to go thither, and get what
they could, though the supply of store goods was extremely
problematical since the rebels, with maws more insatiable than ours,
had occupied the place but a few days previously, and must have
lovingly visited the shops. Commissions were given for the purchase of
all sorts of things--things to eat, things to drink, things to wear,
things to cook in.

Toward evening the chaplain held a prayer-meeting under a spreading
tree. These meetings which had been so acceptable to us while we lay at
Fort Washington were now grown almost totally into disuse. During the
severities of the campaign it would have been a forlorn task to meet
together either at the close or the beginning of the day for even the
solemn services of religion. Our strength was always near the point of
exhaustion, and it was doubtless the feeling of all who thought about
it that we were serving our Maker better by husbanding all our physical
powers for use against the armed enemies of law and order, of
republican government and personal liberty, of society and religion,
than we should be by spending in public prayer, singing and exhortation
the precious hours that would otherwise be given to rest. In silence of
the heart with brief and often painful ejaculations, and in the
nakedness of truth, which no public ceremony can so much as imitate,
did worship go up to heaven from every devout heart among us, during
those days and nights of suffering. The sharpness of our tribulation
was our best chaplai