t was definitely known that the rebels had retreated, the
brigade, dispensing with the little formality of breakfast, marched to the
top of a hill, about a mile south of the town; and after forming line of
battle in an oat-field, the men, exhausted by the twenty-five miles' march
of the preceding day and the fatigue of the night, with one accord, lay
down in the blazing sun and slept till late in the afternoon.

About four o'clock some breakfast (or rather supper), in the shape of a
little pork and potatoes, was found; but just as we were getting ready to
eat, the dulcet notes of the "_assembly_" burst upon our unwilling ears,
and we had to "fall in," dinner or no dinner. Of course we obeyed; but not
relishing the idea of marching away from the only meal that had been seen
for twenty-four hours (a thing which we had been compelled to do more than
once before), a grand dash was made at the pans; and the regiment fell in
and marched off, every man with a piece of pork in one hand and a potato
in the other, eating away for dear life, and forming a _tout ensemble_ not
often equalled.

With the exception of a little picket duty, that night and the next day
were spent in camp opposite the ruined barracks, and were devoted by all
hands to the most energetic resting. To some, the day was blessed by the
receipt of their overcoats and rubber blankets. Happy few! But their joy
only made more melancholy the condition of the great majority whose
portables still remained behind, safely stowed in Harrisburg; so safely,
that as far as the owners were concerned, they might as well have been in
New York; so safely, in fact, that the owners of one half of them never
found them again. In truth, from the commencement of our "two hours" march
until we arrived in New York (just three weeks), neither officers nor
privates were ever enabled to change even their under clothing, but soaked
by day and steamed by night in the suit they wore the day they started; a
suit which, consequently, in no very long time assumed an indescribable
color and condition. Many managed, by hook or by crook, during our
subsequent marches, to beg, borrow, or "_win_," some rubber blankets; but
at least one in six were without that indispensable article, whose absence
renders camp life "a lengthened misery long drawn out," and more than one
in four were without overcoats; while plates there were none; spoons were
very scarce; and the use of such things as forks, combs, a