ess
delay. The regiments changed gait, tried quick time along a level
stretch, and left behind a large number of stragglers. The burst of
speed was for naught, they went the slower thereafter, and coming to a
long, bleak hill, crept up it like tortoises--but without protecting
shells. By sunset the cold was intense. Word came back that the head of
the column was going into camp, and a sigh of approbation arose from
all. But when brigade by brigade halted, deployed, and broke ranks, it
appeared that "going into camp" was rather a barren phrase. The wagons
had not come up; there were no tents, no blankets, no provisions. A
northwester was blowing, and the weather-wise said that there would be
snow ere morning. The regiments spread over bare fields, enclosed by
rail fences. There were a small, rapidly freezing stream and thick
woods, skirting the fields. In the woods were fallen boughs and pine
cones enough to make the axes in the company wagons not greatly missed,
and detachments were sent to gather fagots. The men, cold and exhausted,
went, but they looked wistfully at the rail fences all around them, so
easy to demolish, so splendid to burn! Orders on the subject were
stringent. _Officers will be held responsible for any destruction of
property. We are here to protect and defend, not to destroy._ The men
gathered dead branches and broke down others, heaped them together in
the open fields, and made their camp-fires. The Rockbridge Artillery
occupied a fallow field covered with fox grass, dead Michaelmas daisy,
and drifted leaves. It was a good place for the poor horses, the battery
thought. But the high wind blew sparks from the fires and lighted the
grass. The flames spread and the horses neighed with terror. The battery
was forced to move, taking up position at last in a ploughed field where
the frozen furrows cut the feet, and the wind had the sweep of an
unchained demon. An infantry regiment fared better. It was in a stretch
of fenced field between the road and the freezing brook. A captain,
native of that region, spoke to the lieutenant-colonel, and the latter
spoke to the men. "Captain ---- says that we are camping upon his land,
and he's sorry he can't give us a better welcome! But we can have his
fence rails. Give him a cheer, and build your fires!" The men cheered
lustily, and tore the rails apart, and had rousing fires and were
comfortable; but the next morning Stonewall Jackson suspended from duty
the donor of