accepted, and a detail was made from Company D, who
were stationed in the vicinity, guarding the barricade across the road.
The three men selected, at once advanced without hesitation, and spent the
whole night alone, in the extreme front, patrolling the approaches; and
performed their difficult and arduous duty in such a manner as to earn a
special compliment from Captain King of the Fourth regulars, the division
chief of artillery.

Why our friends, the enemy, did not attack and capture the whole party of
us remains a mystery to this day--but it is conjectured that some
skirmishers of the Thirty-seventh, who were captured at the commencement
of the fight, being no way daunted thereat, coolly told such huge stories
about the First Division N. Y. S. M., as to "bluff" their captors. It was
very evident, at least, that the rebels were wholly in the dark
(figuratively as well as literally) respecting the position of our forces;
and being compelled to fire at random, threw their shell around in a
manner most disagreeable to witness from our end of their cannon. After at
least two hours' rapid firing, the rebels sent in a flag of truce,
demanding the surrender of the place, very kindly allowing some fifteen
minutes for the women and children, whom they had not already killed, to
leave the town to escape the "certain destruction" which was threatened (a
la Beauregard) if the request was refused; but refused it was by Gen.
Smith, in terms more forcible than polite; so the batteries reopened.

It had now become a clear moonlight night; a portion of the artillery was
so near that the commands of the officers could be distinctly heard, and
the incessant flash and roar of the guns, the "screech" of shells flying
overhead, and the heavy jar of their explosion among the buildings in the
rear, seemed strangely inconsistent with the calm beauty of the scene. At
times it seemed doubtful whether the incessant uproar was really the
bombardment of a quiet village; for, during the momentary pauses of the
cannonade, the chirp of the katydid, and the other peaceful sounds of a
country summer night, were heard as though nature could not realize that
human beings had sought that quiet spot to destroy each other.

It must not be supposed that any such sentiment, or in fact any sentiment
whatever, was exhibited on our part; quite the contrary, for as soon as it
became evident that no immediate attack would be made, the men, whether
crouching a