een long empty; that
even the private flasks, which officers carry with the photographs of
their sweethearts, in a side pocket next to their hearts, are destitute
of even the flavor of this article of prime necessity. My much-esteemed
colleague of the court-martial, Colonel Hobart, stumbles up in the thick
darkness to pay his respects. The sentinel, mistaking him for a private,
tells him, with an oath, that this is neither the time nor place for
stragglers, and orders him back to his regiment; and so the night wears
on, and fifty thousand men lay upon their guns again.

3. Colonel Shanklin, with a strong detachment from my brigade, was
captured last night while on picket. Rifle pits are being dug, and I am
ordered to protect the workmen. The rebels hold a strip of woods in our
immediate front, and we get up a lively skirmish with them. Our men,
however, appear loth to advance far enough to afford the necessary
protection to the workers. Vexed at their unwillingness to venture out,
I ride forward and start over a line to which I desire the skirmishers
to advance, and discover, before I have gone twenty yards, that I have
done a foolish thing. A hundred muskets open on me from the woods; but
the eyes of my own brigade and of other troops are on me, and I can not
back out. I quicken the pace of my horse somewhat, and continue my
perilous course. The bullets whistle like bees about my head, but I ride
the whole length of the proposed skirmish line, and get back to the
brigade in safety. Colonel Humphrey, of the Eighty-eighth Indiana, comes
up to me, and with a tremor in his voice, which indicates much feeling,
says: "My God, Colonel, never do that again!" The caution is
unnecessary. I had already made up my mind never to do it again. We keep
up a vigorous skirmish with the enemy for hours, losing now and then a
man; but later in the day we are relieved from this duty, and retire to
a quieter place.

About nightfall General Rousseau desires me to get two regiments in
readiness, and, as soon as it becomes quite dark, charge upon and clean
out the woods in our front. I select the Third Ohio and Eighty-eighth
Indiana for this duty, and at the appointed time we form line in the
open field in front of Gaunther's battery, and as we start, the battery
commences to shell the woods. As we get nearer the objective point, I
put the men on the double quick. The rebels, discovering our approach,
open a heavy fire, but in the darkness sh