e march in their stockings; while others,
who had been sick, looked as though they could never get back to camp.
The companies deployed and marched through the woods, but as the enemy
was on the other side of Vienna we saw no rebels. It was noon when we
reached our camp, tired and covered with mud. Those who went laughed at
those who remained behind, and called them "dead beats!" The "beats"
tauntingly demanded of the others what all their demonstration had
amounted to.

The New York papers heralded the exploit as a grand advance on the
enemy, and we said little about it.

CHAPTER III.

THE MANASSAS CAMPAIGN.

Orders to march--A grand spectacle--Bivouac near Fairfax Court
House--The camps at night--Visits to Manassas and
Centreville--Dissatisfaction in the army--A deserted
country--Lawless soldiers--Fairfax Court House--A representative
Southerner--Review by Gen. McClellan--March to Alexandria--"Camp
Misery."

The first week in March brought lovely weather: birds sang more sweetly,
the sun shone more brightly, and bands played more merrily than usual,
and friends passed from regiment to regiment seeking social pastime with
friends.

We had known no such pleasant times in camp; still we were waiting for
orders to advance. During the night of Sunday, the 8th of March, the
order came: "This division will move at four o'clock in the morning with
two days' rations in haversacks." Little rest we got that night; the
hammer and the axe were plied vigorously in tearing down quarters and
packing stores, and as the sun rose in the morning the whole army was in
motion. It was a sublime spectacle: that immense line of troops pouring
along hour after hour, stretching over the hills as far as the eye could
reach; a hundred and twenty thousand troops on the move! Just beyond and
above them, in the gray sky of the morning, hung a beautiful rainbow. At
six our division commenced to march. Rain soon began to fall, and
continued all day. We passed through Vienna and Lewinsville, each a
hamlet of a dozen houses, and reached our camping ground at five o'clock
in the afternoon, tired, and drenched, and hungry.

Great numbers of troops had already occupied the fields, and the whole
country seemed alive with men and horses, artillery and wagons. We were
in the vicinity of Fairfax Court House, about a mile to the northward,
on what was called Flint Hill.

The army, for the first time, was under "_tentes