rise
hundreds of feet above. The hills, half way to their summits, are
covered with corn, wheat, or grass, while further up the forest is as
dense as it could well have been a hundred years ago.

3. For the first time to-day, I saw men bringing tobacco to market in
bags. One old man brought a bag of natural leaf into camp to sell to the
soldiers, price ten cents per pound. He brought it to a poor market,
however, for the men have been bankrupt for weeks, and could not buy
tobacco at a dime a bagfull.

4. The Fourth has passed off quietly in the little town of Buckhannon
and in camp.

At ten o'clock the Third and Fourth Regiments were reviewed by General
McClellan. The day was excessively warm, and the men, buttoned up in
their dress-coats, were much wearied when the parade was over.

In the court-house this evening, the soldiers had what they call a "stag
dance." Camp life to a young man who has nothing specially to tie him to
home has many attractions--abundance of company, continual excitement,
and all the fun and frolic that a thousand light-hearted boys can
devise.

To-night, in one tent, a dozen or more are singing "Dixie" at the top of
their voices. In another "The Star-Spangled Banner" is being executed so
horribly that even a secessionist ought to pity the poor tune. Stories,
cards, wrestling, boxing, racing, all these and a thousand other things
enter into a day in camp. The roving, uncertain life of a soldier has a
tendency to harden and demoralize most men. The restraints of home,
family, and society are not felt. The fact that a few hours may put them
in battle, where their lives will not be worth a fig, is forgotten. They
think a hundred times less of the perils by which they may be surrounded
than their friends do at home. They encourage and strengthen each other
to such an extent that, when exposed to danger, imminent though it be,
they do not seem to realize it.

7. On the 5th instant a scouting party, under Captain Lawson, started
for Middle Fork bridge, a point eighteen miles from camp. At eight
o'clock last night, when I brought the battalion from the drill-ground,
I found that a messenger had arrived with intelligence that Lawson had
been surrounded by a force of probably four hundred, and that, in the
engagement, one of his men had been killed and three wounded. The camp
was alive with excitement. Each company of the Third had contributed
five men to Captain Lawson's detachment, and each com