would certainly add to our
comfort. I propose that we choose ten by lot to go on with us. They must
be servants of the troop and not of individuals. We can scatter them in
pairs at five points, with instructions to forage as well as they can,
and to have things in readiness to cook for whoever may come in off duty
or may for the time be posted there. Henceforth every man must groom and
see to his own horse, but I see no reason, military or otherwise, why we
shouldn't get our food cooked for us; and it will be just as well, as
long as we can, to have a few bundles of straw for us to lie on instead
of sleeping on the ground.

"Another ten men we can also choose by lot to go to Winchester; which
is, I imagine, the point we shall move to if the enemy advance, as I
fancy they will, from the other side of the Shenandoah Valley. The rest
must be sent home."

Each man accordingly wrote his name on a piece of paper, and placed it
in a haversack. Ten were then drawn out; and their servants were to
accompany the troop at once. The servants of the next ten were to
proceed by train to Winchester, while the slaves of all whose names
remained in the bag were to be sent home at once, provided with passes
permitting them to travel. To Vincent's satisfaction his name was one of
the first ten drawn, and Dan was therefore to go forward. The greater
part of the men evaded the obligation to send their servants back to
Richmond by dispatching them to friends who had estates in the
Shenandoah Valley, with letters asking them to keep the men for them
until the troop happened to come into their neighborhood.

At six o'clock in the morning the troop mounted and rode to Bath, thirty
miles away. It was here that Stuart had his headquarters, whence he sent
out his patrols up and down the Potomac, between Harper's Ferry on the
east and Cumberland on the west. Stuart was away when they arrived, but
he rode in a few hours afterward.

"Ah, Ashley! I am glad you have arrived," he said as he rode up to the
troop, who had hastily mounted as he was seen approaching. "There is
plenty for you to do, I can tell you; and I only wish you had brought a
thousand men instead of a hundred. I am heartily glad to see you all,
gentlemen," he said to the troop. "I am afraid just at first that the
brightness of your gray jackets will put my men rather to shame; but we
shall soon get rid of that. But dismount your men, Ashley; there is
plenty for them and their horse