nt, winnowing out the men who
had coughs, (not a few,) and sending them ignominiously on board again:
a process I had regularly to perform, during this first season of
catarrh, on all occasions where quiet was needed. The only exception
tolerated at this time was in the case of one man who offered a solemn
pledge, that, if unable to restrain his cough, he would lie down on the
ground, scrape a little hole, and cough into it unheard. The ingenuity
of this proposition was irresistible, and the eager patient was allowed
to pass muster.

It was after midnight when we set off upon our excursion. I had about a
hundred men, marching by the flank, with a small advanced guard, and
also a few flankers, where the ground permitted. I put my Florida
company at the head of the column, and had by my side Captain Metcalf,
an excellent officer, and Sergeant McIntyre, his first sergeant. We
plunged presently into pine woods, whose resinous smell I can still
remember. Corporal Sutton marched near me, with his captured negro
guide, whose first fear and sullenness had yielded to the magic news of
the President's Proclamation, then just issued, of which Governor Andrew
had sent me a large printed supply;--we seldom found men who could read
it, but they all seemed to feel more secure when they held it in their
hands. We marched on through the woods, with no sound but the peeping of
the frogs in a neighboring marsh, and the occasional yelping of a dog,
as we passed the hut of some "cracker." This yelping always made
Corporal Sutton uneasy: dogs are the detective officers of Slavery's
police.

We had halted once or twice, to close up the ranks, and had marched some
two miles, seeing and hearing nothing more. I had got all I could out of
our new guide, and was striding on, rapt in pleasing contemplation. All
had gone so smoothly that I had merely to fancy the rest as being
equally smooth. Already I fancied our little detachment bursting out of
the woods, in swift surprise, upon the Rebel quarters,--already the
opposing commander, after hastily firing a charge or two from his
revolver, (of course above my head,) had yielded at discretion, and was
gracefully tendering, in a stage attitude, his unavailing sword,--when
suddenly----

There was a trampling of feet among the advanced guard as they came
confusedly to a halt, and almost at the same instant a more ominous
sound, as of galloping horses in the path before us. The moonlight
outside the w