rd, to the feeding and watering of our horses
and to drill. A peculiarly shrill call is that which brings all the
first or orderly sergeants to the adjutant's quarters to receive any
special order he may have to communicate.

Thus call after call is sounded at intervals throughout the day, ending
with "taps," which is the signal for blowing out the lights, and seeking
the rest which night demands.

CAMP GUARD.

Our principal duties now are camp guard and drill, which we perform by
turns. Every morning quite a large force is detailed, with a
commissioned officer in command, for guard duty. These form a line of
dismounted pickets, or vedettes, around the entire camp. They are
stationed within sight and hailing distance of each other, enabling them
to prevent any one from leaving or entering camp without a written pass
in the day-time, or the countersign at night. The rule is to have each
man stand post for two hours, when he is relieved. This is the maximum
time, and is sometimes made less at the discretion of the commandant.

We are told, as we perform this duty, that it is not very unlike the
picketing that will be required of us if we are ever permitted to take
the field which confronts the enemy. Indeed, this is picketing on a
small scale. And our enthusiasm in this branch of our work increases, as
we are almost daily in receipt of accounts of attacks on our pickets
along the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Cumberland
Canal. It appears that a certain Colonel Turner Ashby, with a force of
cavaliers (?) acting as guerillas, singly and in squads, is nightly
endeavoring to sever our telegraph wires, to burn our railroad-bridges,
and to destroy the canal, or fire at our men on the passing boats; and
not unfrequently we read of skirmishes in which several of our pickets
have been either captured, wounded, or killed. Of course, we expect
before long to face Mr. Ashby and his confederates, and we are preparing
ourselves for it.

MOUNTED DRILL.

But this we do specially in the drill. Recently the balance of our men
were gladdened with a full supply of horses. Mounted drill is now the
general order, and nearly all our time not otherwise occupied is devoted
to this exercise. At first we had some exciting times with our young and
untrained horses. One of our men received a kick from his horse which
proved fatal to his life. Several of our wildest and seemingly
incorrigible ones we have been compelled to