., numbering precisely four (and two of
these were blacks, but none the worse choppers for that). After that
hour, through the earnest solicitations of a guard despatched by Colonel
Aspinwall, whose fixed bayonets presented an unanswerable argument, the
surrounding male population volunteered (?) their aid and axes towards the
completion of the work, while the tired troops sought their tents to
sleep.

No alarm broke the stillness of the night, and the regiment assembled the
next (Sunday) morning in front of the Colonel's tent for religious
services, feeling rather more disposed to be pious than usual, for none
knew what might occur before another day was passed.

Those services never took place. The men were assembled, the prayer-books
distributed, the Chaplain had risen and was on the point of announcing his
text, when the Colonel dashed up at full gallop, with the order--"Go back
to your company 'streets,' and strike tents at once!"

The men rushed back to their quarters, and preparations for breaking camp
went on in the greatest possible haste, in the midst of which the Chaplain
disappeared for parts unknown, and we never laid eyes on him from that day
to this.

Company D (Capt. Thornell) was here ordered down to relieve the companies
on picket, and in obedience to subsequent orders threw up a line of
rifle-pits across the road, to defend the position to which they had been
ordered; where they remained, lying on their arms, until they were called
in on the morning of the 30th.

In a few minutes the camp was struck, and we were marching off, little
thinking, as we took our leave of the pleasant spot where our nice new
tents were being loaded in wagons pressed for the occasion, of the length
of time that would elapse before our heads would get under their (or any
other) shelter again--perhaps, if we had, the leave-taking would have been
more affecting.

While one half of the remaining portion of the regiment was ordered to
hold the rifle-pits, the remainder marched to Bridgeport Station opposite
Harrisburg, and proceeded to barricade several houses commanding the
approaches to the beautiful railroad bridge erected at this point, with as
much industry as though they had not done a thing for a week. Companies A
(then commanded by Lieut. Franklin, Capt. Otis being temporarily absent)
and I (Capt. Gardiner), with beams, barrels of earth, bundles of lath,
railroad sleepers and sand-bags, by ten o'clock P. M., had con