fter sunrise "Julius Caesar"
was discovered by some of the Federal battery officers, who prepared
for the target so inviting to skilful practice. The new soldier sat
under the hot fire with irritating indifference until the
Confederates, unable to restrain their hilarity, exposed the joke by
calling for "Three cheers for Julius Caesar!" The other side quickly
recognised the situation, and good-naturedly added to ours their
cheers for the old hero." From Manassas to Apomattox.) The stress of
battle might thin their ranks, but it was powerless to check their
laughter. The dry humour of the American found a fine field in the
incidents of a fierce engagement. Nothing escaped without remark: the
excitement of a general, the accelerated movements of the
non-combatants, the vagaries of the army mule, the bad practice of
the artillery--all afforded entertainment. And when the fight became
hotter and the Federals pressed resolutely to the attack, the flow of
badinage took a grim and peculiar turn. It has already been related
that the Confederate armies depended, to a large degree, for their
clothing and equipments on what they captured. So abundant was this
source of supply, that the soldier had come to look upon his enemy as
a movable magazine of creature comforts; and if he marched cheerfully
to battle, it was not so much because he loved fighting, but that he
hoped to renew his wardrobe. A victory was much, but the spoils of
victory were more. No sooner, then, did the Federals arrive within
close range, than the wild yells of the Southern infantry became
mingled with fierce laughter and derisive shouts. "Take off them
boots, Yank!" "Come out of them clothes; we're gwine to have them!"
"Come on, blue-bellies, we want them blankets!" "Bring them rations
along! You've got to leave them!"--such were the cries, like the
howls of half-famished wolves, that were heard along Jackson's lines
at Fredericksburg.* (* "During the truce on the second day of
Fredericksburg," says Captain Smith, "a tall, fine-looking Alabama
soldier, who was one of the litter-bearers, picked up a new Enfield
rifle on the neutral ground, examined it, tested the sights,
shouldered it, and was walking back to the Confederate lines, when a
young Federal officer, very handsomely dressed and mounted,
peremptorily ordered him to throw it down, telling him he had no
right to take it. The soldier, with the rifle on his shoulder, walked
very deliberately round the off