ad toiled, to the west Capon
Mountain high and stark against the livid skies, to the south a dark
forest with the snow beneath the trees, to the north long, low hills,
with faded broomsedge waving in the wind. Upon a hilltop perched a
country store, a blacksmith shop, and one or two farmhouses, forlorn and
lonely in the twilight, and by the woods ran Buffalo Run, ice upon the
shallows to either bank.

In the morning, when the artillery was up, when breakfast was over, roll
called, orders read, the army fell to the duties upon which paramount
stress had been laid. All the farriers, the drivers, the men who had to
do with horses, went to work with these poor, wretched, lame, and
wounded friends, feeding them, currying them, dressing their hurts and,
above all, rough-shoeing them in preparation for the icy mountains
ahead. The clink of iron against iron made a pleasant sound; moreover,
this morning, the sun shone. Very cold as it was, there was cheer in the
sky. Even the crows cawing above the woods did not sound so dolefully. A
Thunder Run man found a tree laden with shrivelled persimmons. He was up
it like a squirrel. "Simmon tree! Simmon tree!" Comrades came hurrying
over the snow; the fruit was dropped into upheld caps, lifted toward
eager mouths. Suddenly there flamed a generous impulse. "Boys! them poor
sick fellows with nothing but hardtack--" The persimmons were carried to
the hospital tents.

Before the sun was halfway to the meridian a curious spectacle appeared
along the banks of Buffalo Run. Every hundred feet or so was built a
large fire. Over it hung a camp kettle, full of water--water hot as the
fire could make it. Up and down the stream an improvised laundry went
into operation, while, squad by squad, the men performed their personal
ablutions. It was the eighth of January; they had left Winchester upon
the first, and small, indeed, since then had been the use of washing
water. In the dire cold, with the streams frozen, cleanliness had not
tempted the majority, and indeed, latterly, the men had been too worn
out to care. Sleep and food and warmth had represented the sum of
earthly desire. A number, with ostentation, had each morning broken the
ice from some pool or other and bathed face and hands, but few extended
the laved area. The General Order appointing a Washerman's Day came none
too soon. Up and down Buffalo Run, in the zero weather, the men stripped
and bathed. Soap was not yet the scarce and valua