er to require more than a mention here, and his great fame has been
well and faithfully earned.

No more splendid material, either for officers or men, ever entered into
the composition of a division, and how nobly it played its part in the
great drama of the war, it shall be part of our duty to record. Drills,
regimental, brigade and division, were again in order, and picket duty
now became a part of our routine.

This would not be a faithful chronicle of the doings of the new
regiment, were we to forget to relate the history of our first
expedition into the enemy's country.

An order came one evening in February for Colonel McKean to take his
regiment and make a reconnoissance towards Vienna. His instructions were
to pass the picket line, advance towards Vienna, make a thorough
reconnoissance and return.

The news spread through the camp, and the regiment was ablaze with
excitement. Some who had been on the sick list, and were excused from
camp duty, sought from the surgeon permission to accompany the
expedition, while a few who had been, up to this time, well, were
earnest in their applications to be excused from the march.

The regiment was formed at ten o'clock at night; thick darkness,
darkness of the blackest and most intense degree, prevailed. One could
scarcely see his neighbor whose shoulder touched his own. We were miles
away from the enemy, but the men were to be instructed in performing
their movements in secrecy; so the commands were passed along the line,
as the companies were forming, in whisper. No lights were allowed, and
we left our camp a column of blackness. We were presently joined by a
guide who carried a lantern. We passed a great many regiments, all the
while observing strict silence.

The mud was deep, very deep; some of the men lost their shoes in the
depths of the mire, and some even lost themselves, and were only
discovered when they arrived in camp some hours earlier than the
regiment. Through the darkness we plodded until we reached our
destination, at daylight on the following morning. Here we found bough
houses which had been used by rebel cavalry; and the tracks of many
horses imprinted only a little while before, whether by the horses of
our own cavalry, or by those of the enemy, we never knew. The battalion
was halted and scouts were sent to the front and on the flanks. Some of
the boys who had lost their shoes in the mud before we had advanced the
first mile, had made the whol