march toward home and halted,
late at night, when General Stoneman called for his aide-de-camp. I went
to him, rather sleepy, and he told me he'd decided to communicate with
his chief and report his success, and that I was to start at daylight
and find the Army of the Potomac. I had my pick of ten of the best men
and horses from the brigade, and I got off at gray dawn with them, and
with the written report in my boot to the commanding general, and verbal
orders to find him wherever he might be. Nothing else, except the
tools--swords and pistols, and that sort of thing. Oh, yes, there was
one thing more. General Ladd, who was a Virginian, had given my chief a
letter for his people, thinking we'd get into their country. His family
were all on the Confederate side of the fence, while he was a Union
officer. That was not uncommon in our civil war. But we didn't get near
the Ladd estate, and so Stoneman commissioned me to return the letter to
the general with the explanation. Does this bore you?" he stopped
suddenly to ask, and his alert eye shot the glance at me like a bullet.

"Stop once more and I'll be likely to cry," I predicted.

"For Heaven's sake don't do that." He reached across and took the
poker. "Here's the Rapidan River," he sketched down the rug. "Runs east
and west. And this blue diagonal north of it is the Rappahannock. I
started south of the Rapidan, to cross it and go north, hoping to find
our army victorious and south of the Rappahannock. Which I didn't--but
that's farther along. Well, we were off at daylight, ten men and the
officer--me. It was a fine spring morning, and the bunch of horsemen
made a pretty sight as the sun came up, moving through the
greenness--the foliage is well out down there in May. The bits jingled
and the saddles creaked under our legs--I remember how it sounded as we
started off. We'd had a strenuous week, but we were a strong lot and
ready for anything. We were going to get it, too." The General chuckled
suddenly, as if something had hit his funny-bone. "I skirted along the
south bank of the Rapidan, keeping off the roads most of the time, and
out of sight, which was better for our health--we were in Confederate
country--and we got to Germania Ford without seeing anybody, or being
seen. Said I, 'Here's the place we'll cross.' We'd had breakfast before
starting, but we'd been in the saddle three hours since that, and I was
thirsty. I could see a house back in the trees as we came t