to sleep,
With mingled lullabies of sight and sound."

Such experiences as these had taught me to love my faithful and true
friend. But I found I was not the only man in the command who was
bereaved of his _first_ love. Only a few horses of the original number
which we drew still remain, and several of them are either partially or
totally blind, though yet serviceable. The hardships of the camp and the
campaign are more destructive of animal than human flesh. Men are often
sheltered from the storm when the horses are exposed, and the men are
sometimes fed when the horses have to go hungry.

In battle the horse is a larger mark than the man, and hence is more
frequently hit, so that more than twice the number of horses fall in
every engagement than men. The cavalryman is more shielded from the
deadly missile than the infantryman. The horse's head and shoulders will
often receive the bullet which was intended for the rider's body. This
is true also of the elevated portions of the saddle, with the rolls of
blankets and coats and bag of forage. A difference has also been noticed
between the casualties in cavalry and infantry regiments under equal
exposure. This difference is wholly explained when we consider the
jolting and swift motion of the man as his horse leaps forward in the
fray, making him a very uncertain mark for the enemy.

BRIGHT DAYS.

_March 3._--This is the first bright day we have seen in more than three
weeks. The mud around our camps, especially in the neighborhood where we
water our horses, is terrible, and the roads are almost bottomless.
However, long trains of forage and commissary-wagons may be seen passing
to and fro, with horses and mules in mud from "stem to stern."
Cavalcades of mudded horses and riders traverse the camps and adjoining
fields in various directions.

Large flocks of crows--the most soldier-like bird in the world--with
their high-perched vedettes when alighted, and their military line of
march when on the wing, afford some lessons of diversion and
instruction. It would seem as if all the ravens of the United States had
congregated here, having been attracted by the carrion of battle-fields
and the refuse of camps. Turkey buzzards, birds which are always on the
wing, and that none of us ever yet saw alighted, wheel through the air
like eagles, gazing down upon us with seeming defiance. The sights are
of daily occurrence.

KILPATRICK.

To-day several details were made